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THE    HISTORY 


OF 


THE  "OLD  SCOTS"  CHURCH 


OF  FREEHOLD 


FROM  THE  SCOTCH  I. VAflG RATION  OF  1683    TILL    'THE    RE- 
MOVAL   OF    THE    CHCRCH   UNDER    THE   MINISTRY 
OF    THE    REV.     WILLIAM    TENNENT,   JR. 


BY  HENRY  GOODWIN  *t^MITH, 

Mi7iister  of  the  Freehold  Church. 


FREEHOIvD,    N.    J. 

TRANSCRIPT   PRINTING   HOUSK 

18©6. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE. 

THE  SCO  TCH  IMIMIGRA  TION  OF  16S3 5-/2 

The  Condition  in  France.  In  England.  In  Scotland.  Argyle's 
Revolt.  Persecutions  of  the  Summer.  Lord  Netl  Campbell'' s  Ex- 
pedition. Pitlochie  and  the  ''Henry  and  Francis.''  The  Settle- 
ment in  Monmouth  County. 

THE  EARL]'  DAYS  OF    THE   CHCRCH ._   13-18 

The  Site.  The  Graves.  The  Accepted  Date,  i6g2.  The  County 
Record  of  1J03.  The  Apprehension  of  Opposition  from  Cornbury 
and  Morris.      The  Qualifying  of  fohn  Toyd. 

THE  FIRST  'presbytery  MEETING .    -    19-23 

The  First  Page  of  the  Minutes.  The  Beginning  of  American 
Presbyterian  Church  History.  McKemie.  Andrezvs.  Hampton. 
No  Elders  Present.      The  Ordination. 

REW  JOHN  BOYD,  1J06-170S       _ 24-29 

His  Past.  His  Ministry  Prior  to  Ordination.  His  Examina- 
tion. His  Ordination.  His  Three  Overtures  in  Presbytery.  His 
Mission  Work.  Contemporaneous  Events.  His  Tombstone.  Its 
Inscription.     Its  Condition.     Its  Proper  Preservation. 

RE  I '.  JOSEPH  MORGAN,  1709-1729 30-3R 

His  Early  Life  and  Prior  Settlements.  His  Qualifying.  His 
Connection  With  the  Dutch  Church.  With  the  Presbytery.  His 
Inventions.  His  Publications.  His  Tract  on  Church  Unity.  The 
Charges  Agaitist  Him.     Missionary  Activity.     His  Later  Life. 

RE J:  JOHN   TENNFNT,   1 730-1 732 39-47 

His  Early  Life,  Conversion,    Training,  Licensure.     Condition  of 
The  Freehold  Church.       Walter  Ker's  Effort.      The  Ordination. 
His  Ministry  and  Success.      His  Death.      His  Tombstone.      His 
Jl  ''ri tings.     .Su  m  mary  of  His  L  ife. 

THE  REMOJ'AL  OF  THE  CHURCH.     .  4^-52 

Reasons  for  the  Removal.  Fear  of  Division.  Change  in  Location 
of  Settlers.  Decay  of  The  ''Old  Scots"  Meeting-House.  Wil- 
liam   Tennent,  fr.    fohn  Woodhull,  D.  D.     Walter  Ker's  Grave. 

APPENDIN. 


CHAPTER  I. 


THE  SCOTCH  IMMIGRATION  OF  16S3. 
The  Condition  in  France.       In  FnQ-land.      In    Sroi/and.      Ai-gyle's  Revolt. 
Persecutions  of  the  Summer.      Lord  Neil  Campbell' s  Expedition.     Pit- 
lochie  and  the  ''Henry  and  Francis.''       The  Settlement  in  Monmouth 
County. 

At  no  time  since  the  days  of  Calvin  and  of  Knox  was 
the  outlook  for  the  Reformed  faith  darker  in  Great  Brit- 
ain and  France  than  in  the  year  1685.  In  that  j^ear 
Louis  XIV.  was  persuaded  to  revoke  the  Edict  of  Nantes, 
which  for  over  eighty  years  had  been  the  shield  of  toler- 
ation for  the  Protestantism  of  France.  Six  hundred 
thousand  Huguenots  sought  exile,  fleeing  from  the  per- 
secutions of  the  "  dragonnades,"  and  enriched  Holland, 
England  and  America  with  the  industry,  character,  and 
faith  which  a  century  later  proved  to  be  the  sorest  needs 
of  the  land  from  which  they  had  been  so  ruthlessly  ex- 
pelled. 

Early  in  the  year,  on  the  death  of  his  brother  Charles, 
James  11.  ascended  the  throne  of  Great  Britain,  and  in 
defiance  of  the  past  opposition  to  his  succession  on  ac- 
count of  his  Romanist  views,  openly  avowed  himself  a 
Catholic.  The  ritual  of  the  Roman  church  was  celebra- 
ted at  Westminster  in  Holy  Week,  the  court  soon  as- 
sumed a  papist  complexion,  the  Capital  silently  acqui- 
esced, but  in  the  West  of  England  and  in  Scotland 
discontent  ripened  in  a  few  weeks  into  revolt.  Had  lead- 
ers appeared  with  characters  and  reputations  that  would 
have  fairly  represented  the  Protestant  sentiment  of  the 


6  THE        OLD    SCOTS        CHURCH. 

land,  the  revolution  might  well  have  been  anticipated, 
which  three  ^-ears  later  brought  William  of  Orange  to 
the  English  tlirone.  But  Duke  Monmouth,  the  vain, 
luxurious,  natural  son  of  Charles  n.,  strove  in  vain  to 
rally  the  pure,  stern  piety  of  England  and  of  Scotland 
to  the  blue  banner  of  his  Protestant  uprising  in  the 
West,  and  died  as  a  traitor  to  the  King's  person  and 
the  "  King's  religion,'  which  gained  a  passing  strength 
b}^  the  failure  of  this  so-called  "  Protestant  rebellion." 

The  Scottish  contingent  of  Monmouth's  revolt  was 
led  by  the  Earl  of  Argyle.  Landing  his  forces  in  May 
on  the  coast  of  Cantyre,  he  endeavored  to  win  to  the 
venturous  cause  the  persecuted  Presbyterian  element 
of  Western  Scotland.  The  cautious  Scotchmen  doubted 
the  right  of  Monmouth's  claims  to  the  throne,  they  dis- 
liked his  volatile  character,  and  they  had  not  forgotten 
his  part  in  the  slaughter  of  their  brethren  at  Bothwell 
Bridge.  They  remembered  also  Argyle's  "  moderate  " 
policy  in  the  past,  and  his  vote  in  Council,  which  but  four 
years  before  sealed  the  fate  of  the  martyred  Cargill. 

The  cross  of  blazing  yew,  quenched  in  goat's  blood, 
sent  as  the  ancient  war-summons  through  the  glens  of 
Argyleshire,  was  obe^^ed  b}"  onl}^  a  portion  of  the  great 
clan  of  the  Campbells. 

The  harryings  and  slaughters  of  the  long  cruel  years 
of  Charles  ii.  had  broken  the  strength  of  Scotland's 
Covenant;  the  noblest  of  her  leaders  were  imprisoned, 
exiled,  or  preparing  to  fly  to  the  colonies,  and  the  heads 
of  this  movement,  Monmouth  and  Argyle,  brought  no 
assurance  of  help  to  the  Covenant.  The  faint-hearted 
band  of  insurgents  dispersed  at  the  first  opposition,  and 
Argyle  was  beheaded  in  Edinburgh  in  June,  two  weeks 
before  Monmouth's  death  in  the  Tower. 


THE    IMMIGRATION    OF    16«0.  7 

That  summer  of  1685  witnessed  the  "  bloody  circuit  " 
in  West  England,  when  the  ferocious  Jeffreys  hung  or 
exiled  a  thousand  for  participating  in  Monmouth's 
cause.  In  Scotland,  Claverhouse  raided  the  districts  of 
Dumfries  and  Galloway,  making  the  abjuration  of  the 
Covenant  the  alternative  to  imprisonment  or  death.  In 
the  month  of  May,  Margaret  Wilson  and  Margaret  Mc- 
Laughlan  were  drowned  in  the  tidewaters  of  Blednock, 
singing  their  psalms  of  praise  until  the  waters  sealed 
their  lips/  Burnt  Island  prison  and  Dunnottar  Castle 
heard  the  piteous  prayers  of  hundreds  ot  suffering 
Presbyterians,  who  refused  to  renounce  their  allegiance 
to  Christ  as  the  Head  of  His  people. 

Macaulay  [History,  i.,  504,  5]  says  that  "  Through 
many  years  the  autumn  of  1685  was  remembered  as  a 
time  of  misery  and  terror."  "  Never,  not  even  under  the 
tyranny  of  Laud,  had  the  condition  of  the  Puritans  been 
more  deplorable  than  at  that  time." 

Out  from  this  blackness  of  darkness  that  enveloped 
Scotland,  the  Covenanters  looked  westward  for  deliver- 
ance and  light.  Tidings  of  the  free  life  of  some  of  the 
colonies  where  toleration  of  religion  was  observed  came 
to  them  as  a  bright  vision  to  those  that  dream.  The 
chartered  provisions  for  religious  freedom  in  the  colony 
of  East  Jersey  attracted  them  especially  to  that  portion 
of  the  new  continent.  The  interest  in  the  proprietory 
rights  of  the  colony  held  by  many  prominent  and  excel- 
lent Scotchmen  gave  added  inducements  for  emigration 
thither.  The  harbor  of  Leith  was  alive  with  the  parties 
of  Quakers  and  Covenanters  who  turned  their  stern, 
saddened  faces  westward  in  faith  and  hope  and  prayer. 

After  Argyle's  death  many  of  the  clan  of  the  Camp- 
bells were  hung  or  sentenced  to  be  deported  to  the  colo- 


8  THR    "  OLD    SCOTvS  "    CHITRCH. 

iiies.  Hearing  the  threats  of  the  Council  to  extermi- 
nate the  clan,  Lord  Neil  Campbell,  brother  of  the  unfor- 
tunate earl,  purchased  a  proprietory  right  in  the  colony 
of  East  Jersey,  and  in  the  autumn  of  the  year  fled  to 
America,  leading  over  several  scores  of  adherents  of  his 
brother's  cause  and  of  the  persecuted  faith.  He  was  re- 
ceived with  marks  of  distinction  by  the  East  Jersey  pro- 
prietors upon  the  field,  and  in  the  following  year  was 
appointed  Deputy  Governor  of  the  province.  In  the 
quaint  chirography  of  James  Emott,  of  Ambo}^,  clerk  of 
the  province,  is  the  list  of  Campbell's  emigrants  of  1685, 
and  among  their  number  we  may  find  names  of  those 
who,  a  few  years  after,  reared  the  Church  of  their  Coven- 
anted faith  on  "  Free  hill  "  in  the  county  of  Monmouth.'^ 
Toward  the  close  of  the  year  there  arrived  at  Perth 
Amboy  the  "  Henry  and  Francis."  a  vessel  "  of  350  tun 
and  20  great  guns,"  the  pest  ship  containing  the  stricken 
remnant  of  the  sad  expedition  organized  b}^  George  Scot, 
laird  of  Pitlochie.  Few  pages  of  history  are  fuller  of 
mingled  misery,  horror  and  moral  grandeur,  than  the 
records  of  these  persecuted  followers  of  Pitlochie.  Sen- 
tenced to  death  for  attending  conventicles  and  refusing 
allegiance  to  the  Papist  James,  they  were  lying  in  the 
summer  of  1685,  tortured  and  mutilated,  in  the  prisons 
of  Glasgow  and  Edinburgh,  Stirling  and  Leith.  Pit- 
lochie, who  had  been  fined  enormous  sums  and  thrice 
imprisoned  for  his  Presbyterian  principles,  obtained  for 
them  a  commutation  of  sentence  to  banishment  for  life. 
Collecting  from  the  stifling  dungeons  this  wretched 
crowd  of  men  and  women,  with  ears  cropped,  and  noses 
slit,  and  cheeks  branded,  he  embarked  with  them  in 
September  only  to  lose  his  life '  upon  the  passage,  his 
wife  and  some  seventy  of  his  fellow-sufferers  also  perish- 


THE    IMMIGRATION    OF    l(iB5.  9 

ing  from  the  pestilent  ship-fever.  On  this  voyage  of 
horrors,  with  the  memory  of  persecution  and  tyranny 
behind  them,  with  the  plague  carrying  away  three  and 
four  from  their  number  daily,  with  the  hardships  of  the 
untried  wilderness  before  them,  their  indomitable  spirits 
rose  above  all  these  miseries  that  encompassed  them  and 
they  sent  back  to  Scotland  the  protest  against  the  injus- 
tice that  banished  them  from  their  ''own  native  and 
covenanted  land,  by  an  unjust  sentence,  for  owning 
truth,  and  holding  by  duty,  and  studying  to  keep  by 
their  covenanted  engagements  and  baptismal  vows, 
whereby  they  stand  obliged  to  resist,  and  testify  against 
all  that  is  contrary  to  the  word  of  God  and  their  coven- 
ants." Concerning  their  attitiide  toward  King  James 
they  say  ''  their  sentence  of  banishment  ran  chiefly  be- 
cause they  refused  the  oath  of  allegiance,  which  in  con- 
science they  could  not  take,  because  in  so  doing,  they 
thought  they  utterly  declined  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
from  having  any  power  in  his  own  house,  and  practical- 
ly would  by  taking  it,  say  he  was  not  King  and  head  of 
his  church  and  over  their  consciences;  and  on  the  con- 
trar}',  this  was  to  take  and  put  in  his  room  a  man  whose 
breath  is  in  his  nostrils,  yea,  a  man  that  is  a  sworn  ene- 
my to  religion,  an  avowed  papist,  whom  b}^  our  covenant 
we  are  bound  to  vvithstand  and  disown."  [Wodrow, 
Histor}^,  iv.,  pp.  331,  332.]  This  declaration  of  al- 
legiance to  the  supremacy  of  spiritual  truth  over  all 
earthly  powers,  rings  in  our  ears  like  the  challenge  of 
a  trumpet  peal;  clear,  strident,  and  inspiring. 

Their  sufferings  were  intensified  by  the  inhuman 
treatment  received  upon  the  voyage.  "  When  thej^  who 
were  under  deck  attempted  to  worship  God  by  them- 
selves the  captain  would  throw  down  great  planks  in  or- 


lO  THE        OLD    SCOTvS        CHITRCH. 

der  to  disturb  them."  The  captain  also  proposed  taking 
the  wretched  cargo  to  Virginia  or  Jamaica  and  offered  to 
dispose  of  them  "  in  bulk.'' 

Wodrow  states  that  the  emigrants  found  but  inhospi- 
table treatment  from  "  the  people  who  lived  on  the  coast 
side  "  but  received  many  acts  of  kindness  from  the  in- 
habitants of  a  town  "  a  little  wa}^  up  the  country."  This 
place  of  their  first  sojourn  was  probably  Woodbridge, 
where  the  sufferers  found  a  Puritan  settlement  of  New 
Englanders.  Mau}^  of  them  came  over  to  Monmouth 
county,  after  litigation  with  John  Johnstone,  Pitlochie's 
son-in-law,  on  whom  the  command  of  the  expedition  de- 
volved at  the  leader's  death.  Mr.  Johnstone,  according 
to  Wodrow's  account,  sued  many  of  them  as  "  Redemp- 
tioners  "  for  four  years  service,  according  to  the  agree- 
ment in  Scot's  "  Model  "  for  those  who  went  over  with- 
out remuneration.  As  seventy-two  of  the  passengers 
were  said  to  be  "  presents  to  the  Laird  "  being  "  priso- 
ners banished  to  the  plantations  "  the  demand  does  not 
seem  an  unjust  one.  Johnstone  obtained  a  plantation 
in  Monmouth  named  "  Scotschesterburg,"  and  rose  to 
prominence  as  a  political  leader  of  the  "  Scotch  "  party 
in  the  colony. 

Although  these  two  expeditions  of  1685  were  the  most 
notable  of  those  days  they  were  not  the  first  or  only  or- 
ganized parties  of  Scotch  immigrants.  In  the  year 
1682,  the  twenty-four  proprietors,  a  number  of  whom 
were  Scotchmen,  on  coming  into  possession  of  the  soil 
of  East  Jerse}^,  offered  many  inducements  to  settle  in 
the  new  colon}^  Among  those  who  came  over  in  this 
first  year  of  general  immigration,  we  find  the  names  of 
William  and  Margaret  Redford,  born  in  the  years  1642 
and  1645,  who  lie  buried  in  the  "  Old  Scots  "  graveyard, 


The  Tombstone  of  the  Oldest  Covenanters  Buried  in  the  "  Old  vScots  "  Ground, 
who  Came  in  the  First  Year  of  Scotch  ImmisTration. 


THE    IMMIGRATION    OF    16cS5.  II 

under  a  double  stone,  reproduced  in  the  accompanying 
cut.  The  3^ears  of  their  respective  births  are  the  oldest 
recorded  in  the  grave-3^ard. 

In  16S4,  Scot  of  Pitlochie  published  his  "  Model  of  the 
Government  of  East  Jersey  in  America,"  showing  its 
advantages  as  a  "  retreat  where,  by  law,  a  toleration  is 
allowed  '•"'  *  '•'  '•'  no  where  else  to  be  found  in  his  ma- 
jesty's dominions."  Barclay  of  Ury,  the  grand  old 
Quaker  Governor  of  the  colony,  together  with  Lawrie 
and  Drummond,  his  Deputies  on  the  field,  with  motives 
of  mingled  compassion  and  business  interest,  organized 
mau}^  parties  of  harassed  Scotch  Quakers  and  Covenan- 
ters, who  on  their  arrival  at  Perth  Anibo}',  the  port  of 
the  colony,  soon  found  their  way  to  the  broad  plains  of 
Middlesex  and  Monmouth  counties.^ 

The  famous  emigrant  ship,  the  "  Caledonia,"^  is  sup- 
posed to  have  made  her  first  voyages  at  this  early  period, 
and  other  well-known  Covenanters,  such  as  Walter  Ker,^ 
pillar  of  the  Freehold  Church  for  half  a  centurj^,  are 
known  to  have  come  in  the  year  1685. 

On  entering  Monmouth  county,  the  Presbyterian  Im- 
migrants found  the  neighborhood  of  the  Navesink  neck 
already  in  the  possession  of  the  Monmouth  patent  men, 
among  whom  at  first  the  Baptist  element  predominated. 
The  Shrewsbury  settlement  was  largely  of  Quakers, 
many  of  whom  were  brought  to  the  established  church 
through  the  agency  of  the  persuasive  and  energetic 
George  Keith.  The  Covenanters  would  naturally  seek 
a  locality  where  they  might  form  a  communit}^  of  their 
own  and  might  dwell  together  in  fellowship.  Some  of 
them  settled  near  the  present  town  of  Matawan,  where 
before  the  year  1690  was  a  hamlet  known  as  New  Aber- 
deen.''    The  larger  portion  of  them  advanced  somewhat 


12  THE        OLD    SCOTS       CHURCH. 

farther  into  the  interior  and  in  the  large  district  known 
then  as  Freehold  found  peace  and  plenteousness  after 
their  sufferings  and  wanderings.  Freehold  obtained  its 
first  character  as  a  community  from  the  Covenanter  im- 
migrants of  1682-1685.^ 

"  This  is  the  era  at  which  East  Jersey,  till  now  chief- 
ly colonized  from  New  England,  became  the  asylum  of 
Scottish  Presbyterians,"  says  Bancroft,  [Colonial  His- 
tory, chap,  xvii.]  "  Is  it  strange,  "  he  continues,  "  that 
Scottish  Presbyterians  of  virtue,  education  and  courage, 
blending  a  love  of  popular  libert}^  with  religious  enthu- 
siasm, hurried  to  East  Jersey  in  such  numbers  as  to  give 
to  the  rising  commonwealth  a  character  which  a  century 
and  a  half  has  not  effaced."  "Thus  the  mixed  charac- 
ter of  New  Jersey  springs  from  the  different  sources  of 
its  people.  Puritans,  Covenanters,  and  Quakers  met  on 
her  soil;  and  their  faith,  institutions,  and  preferences, 
having  life  in  the  common  mind,  survive  the  Stuarts." 


CHAPTER  II. 


THE  EARLY  DAYS  OF  THE  CHURCH. 
The  Site.     The  Graves.    The  Accepted  Date,  1692.     The  County  Record  of 
.7705.       The  Apprehension  of  Opposition  from  Cornbury  and  Morris. 
The  Qualifying  of  fohn  Boyd. 

Some  six  miles  to  the  north  of  the  present  town  of 
Freehold,  on  a  wooded  eminence,  overlooking  rolling, 
fertile  fields,  lies  a  neglected  acre  which  should  be  a 
cherished  spot  to  all  Presbyterians  of  our  land,  and  also 
to  all  interested  in  the  beginnings  of  the  colonial  his- 
tory.** It  is  the  site  of  the  ''  Old  Scots  "  Church  of  Free- 
hold, reared  by  the  exiles  of  1685  for  their  worship  of 
God  after  the  simple  manner  forbidden  in  their  own 
"  native  and  covenanted  land."  The  view  presented 
in  the  accompanying  cut  shows  a  portion  of  this  "  God's 
Acre,"  with  the  church  site  in  the  foreground.  Of  the 
building  itself,  no  memory,  tradition,  or  trace  remains, 
except  the  slight  depression  in  the  soil,  which  would  in- 
dicate the  humble  dimensions  of  a  structure  perhaps 
some  twenty  feet  square.^  Close  under  its  eaves  were 
laid  the  remains  of  its  first  minister.  Rev.  John  Boyd. 
Eight  yards  to  the  southwest,  under  a  horizontal  stone 
that  is  sinking  in  the  turf,  lies  the  bod}-  of  Rev.  John 
Tennent,  who,  like  Rev.  John  Boyd,  died  in  his  youth 
after  two  3'ears  of  ministry  with  the  church. 

Around  this  central  site  lie  the  rude  stones  of  the  old 
Scotch  pilgrims  and  their  children,  of  Archibald  Craige, 
one  of  Lord  Campbell's  company,  of  John  Henderson, 
son  probabh^  of  him  of  the  same  name  who  signed  the 


14  THE        OLD    SCOTS        CHURCH. 

protest  on  Pitlochie's  ship,  of  Formans  of  the  generation 
following  John, Foreman  of  the  "Henry  and  Francis," 
and  others  of  the  names  of  Clark,  Redford,  Wall  and 
Ward,  belonging  to  the  Covenanter  generation,  others 
still  of  the  names  of  Amy.  Crawford,  O'Harrah,  Pease, 
Patten,  VanDorn,  and  Freeiser  of  the  generation  of  the 
sons  and  danghters  born  in  the  new  world. ^° 

The  generally  accepted  date  for  the  erection  of 'the 
chnrch  buildinQ-.  or  the  oro-anization  of  the  church  soci- 
et}',  is  the  year  1692."  The  only  basis  apart  from  tradi- 
tion appears  to  be  a  Mss.  letter  from  Freehold  by  Rev. 
John  Woodhull,  D.  D.,  dated  April  23rd,  1792,  which 
stated  that  "  The  Chnrch  was  formed  about  an  hundred 
years  ago,  chiefly  by  persons  from  Scotland.''  [Hodge's 
History,  i.  56.] 

Takins:  into  consideration  the  tenacitv  of  the  Coven- 
anters'  religious  convictions,  and  the  liberty  of  worship 
bought  by  their  exile,  it  seems  improbable  that  mau}^ 
years  could  have  passed  before  thej^  assembled  in  "  con- 
venticles," unharassed  by  fear  of  dragoon  or  blood  hound, 
sword  or  gibbet.  The  strenuous  labor  of  reclaiming  the 
soil  to  productiveness  would  not  turn  those  worthies  of 
faith  from  confessing  that  they  were  pilgrims  and  so- 
journers seeking  the  better  and  heavenly  countr3%  and 
in  their  assembling  themselves  together,  after  the  plain 
customs  of  the  church  of  Knox,  these  loyal  Scotchmen 
would  find  both  their  clearest  duty  and  their  highest 
joy.  It  would  be  at  variance  with  their  character  and 
circumstances  to  suppose  a  later  date  than  1692  for  the 
beginning  of  the  little  kirk,  the  appointment  of  elders 
or  "  assistants,"  and  the  rearing  of  the  building,  made 
of  logs  or  rough-hewn  timbers.  For  a  period  of  fourteen 
years  without  a  settled  minister  to  conduct  the  services 


THE  EARLY  DAYS  OF  THE  CHURCH.        1 5 

and  administer  the  sacraments,  the  neighboring  Coven- 
anters doubtless  gathered  upon  the  Lord's  day,  read  the 
Scriptures,  sang  their  metrical  versions  of  David's 
Psalms,  catechized  the  children,  and  joined  in  prayer 
led  by  John  Craig  or  Walter  Ker  or  John  Henderson, 
adoring  the  God  of  Deliverance  for  their  escapes  from 
perils  and  tribulations,  and  invoking  the  continuance  of 
his  covenant  of  grace  to  their  children  and  to  generations 
yet  unborn. ^^ 

The  Scotchmen  would  be  joined  in  these  services  by 
some  of  their  fellow  Presb^'terians  from  Holland  and 
from  France,  who  came  to  the  region  in  the  later  years 
of  the  centurYi  and  formed  strong  affiliations  with  the 
Scotch,  uniting  in  fullest  sympath}^  wath  their  Calvinis- 
tic  doctrines  and  in  fellowship  in  sufferings.  The  names 
of  DuBois,  La  Rue.  shortened  to  Rue,  and  Perrin,  or 
Perrine,  indicate  the  Huguenot  parentage  of  some  of  the 
early  settlers.  Concerning  the  Dutch  immigration  more 
will  be  said  in  the  chapter  on  Rev.  Joseph  Morgan,  who 
was  pastor  of  both  the  Scotch  and  Dutch  churches  of 
Freehold. 

The  first  authentic  statement  concerning  the  early 
history  of  the  church  is  contained  in  the  early  records 
of  the  courts  of  the  Count}-  of  Monmouth. 

This  is  the  action  taken  by  four  representative  Pres- 
bj^terians  in  the  count}-  who  desired  the  ''  recording  "  of 
their  Meeting-house  b}^  the  court.  A  fac-simile  of  this 
request,  of  the  consequent  action  of  the  court,  and  of 
the  application  of  the  Rev.  John  Bo^-d  for  leave  to  ■■'  quali- 
fy "  is  given. 

The  record  reads  as  follows: — At  a  Court  held  on 
Fourth  Tuesda}^  of  December  1705.  John  Bowne,  Pres- 
ident. 


l6  THE    "old    scots"    CHURCH. 

Richard  Salter,  Obadiah  Bowne,  Anthony  Woodward, 
George  Allen,  Jeremiah  Still  well.  Assistants. 

At  ye  request  of  John  Craig,  Walter  Ker,  William 
Bennet,  Patrick  Imly,  in  behalf  of  themselves  and  their 
breathren,  ye  protestant  desenters  of  freehold  called 
Presbiterians,  that  their  Publick  meeting  house  may  be 
recorded.  Ordered  by  this  Cort,  that  it  be  Recorded  as 
followeth.  The  Meeting  House  for  religious  worship,be- 
longing  to  the  Protistant  discenters,  called  ye  Presbi- 
terians of  ye  Town  of  Freehold,  in  ye  County  of  Mon- 
mouth, in  ye  Province  of  New  Jarsey,  is  scituate,  built, 
lying  and  being  at  and  upon  a  piece  of  Rising  grownd, 
commonly  known  and  called  by  the  name  of  free  hill  in 
sd  Town. 

Mr.  John  Boj^d,  Minnister  of  the  sd  Presbiterians  of 
freehold,  did  also  Parsonally  appear,  and  did  desire  that 
he  might  be  admitted  to  qualify  himself,as  the  law  directs 
in  that  behalf. 

Ordered  that  further  consideration  thereof  be  referred 
until  the  next  Court  of  Quarter  Sessions." 

The  reason  for  the  "  Recording  "  of  the  church  pro- 
perty nia}^  well  have  been  an  apprehension  of  some  act 
of  injustice  or  extortion  on  the  part  of  Lord  Cornbury 
who  was  then  governor  of  New  Jersey  and  New  York. 
His  administration  of  affairs  in  New  York  was  disgrac- 
ed by  a  series  of  illegal  acts  toward  dissenting  churches 
and  ministers.  In  New  York  City,  in  Westchester 
county,  and  on  Long  Island,  Puritan  church  buildings 
w^ere  turned  over  to  the  established  church,  and  both 
ministers  and  congregations  were  forced  to  conform  or 
to  retire. 

Although  there  was  no  establishment  of  the  Episco- 
pal  church   in   the  Jersies,  to  give  color  to  any  similar 


v_. 


'■■ '  yy'r?''>^ff'?f?^!''"?''''''.*'"'^ 


n    '  ■ 


\  mm.^ 


.....     //^'^'/^^>^'^^    ^^ 


\.  ^  ? 


c>     X  T^-   ,-:  '•-  u'rX^/a^/i!:/'  c-i 


^/ 


-    *  '  *        .  ■■ 


X  .'  «,^  '/•      ''  .'-<       _ 


The  Earliest  Oflicial  Record  of  the   "Old  vScots  "   Church  and  John  Boyd. 
From  the  Monmouth  County  Records  of  the  Court  Held 
on  the  Fourth  Tuesday  in  December,    1705. 


THE  EARLY  DAYS  OF  THE  CHURCH.        1 7 

action,  the  cautious  Scotchmen  wished  to  avail  them- 
selves of  every  safe-guard. ^^ 

The  spreading  upon  the  court  records  of  the  position 
of  the  meeting  house,  and  the  acknowledgement  by  the 
legal  authorities  that  it  was  the  property  of  "  ye  desen- 
ters  called  ye  Presbiterians  "  gave  a  certain  legal  secur- 
it}'  of  title,  being  an  endorsement  by  the  constituted 
authorities  of  their  ownership  and  their  rights  to  own. 

Assuming  the  church  to  have  been  in  existence  since 
1692,  a  reason  wh}^  thirteen  ^^ears  elapsed  before  making 
the  record,  may  be  found  in  the  fact  that  up  to  the 
3'ear  1704  the  court  of  the  count}^  had  been,  almost  with- 
out interruption,  under  the  power  of  Lewis  Morris,  a 
zealous  churchman,  who  showed  his  ecclesiastical  pre- 
ferences, however,  more  in  bitter  opposition  to  dissent 
than  in  any  earnest  efforts  to  propagate  Episcopac}^  In 
the  3^ear  1704,  the  county  courts  fell  into  the  hands  of  the 
Patent  men  of  Middletown,  mau}^  of  whom  were  Bap- 
tists. The  Presb^^terians,  therefore,  took  the  earliest 
occasion  practicable  to  secure  from  their  fellow-dissen- 
ters upon  the  bench  the  legal  recognition  of  their  pos- 
sessions. 

The  zeal  and  success  with  which  George  Keith  had 
in  the  last  few  years  been  leading  the  Quakers  of 
Shrewsbury  and  Freehold  into  the  communion  of  the 
established  church,  was  an  added  cause  for  alarm  and 
for  energetic  action  on  the  part  of  the  Presbyterians, 
who  remembered  that  Keith  had  begun  his  varied  eccles- 
iastical career  in  the   Kirk  of  Scotland. 

The  appearance  of  the  young  minister,Rev.  John  Boyd, 
at  the  same  court  sessions  was  another  act  of  precaution 
to  preserve  the  person  of  the  preacher  from  the  outrages 
and  t3^ranny  of  the  Governor.     Cornbur3''s  treatment 


l8  '  THE    "old    SCOTvS  "    CHURCH. 

of  Morgan  of  Kastchester  [who  was  Boyd's  successor  at 
Freehold,]  of  Jiubbard  of  Jamaica,  of  McKemie  and 
Hampton  when  preaching  at  Newton,  and  even  of  Epis- 
copalian ministers  in  New  Jersey  who  fell  under  his 
displeasure^*  gave  abundant  warrant  for  taking  every 
step  to  ensure  safety  from  the  attacks  of  the  man  who, 
Bancroft  says,  "joined  the  worst  form  of  arrogance  to 
intellectual  imbecilit}^"    [Hist,  of  U.  S.  ii.  p.  41.] 

The  court,  in  December,  1705,  deferred  action  upon 
Rev,  John  Boyd's  request  until  the  following  May.  In- 
asmuch as  they  had  no  action  in  a  similar  case  to  guide 
them  as  precedent,  and  as  most  of  the  judges  on  the 
bench  were  unfamiliar  with  judicial  duties,  the  court 
probably  felt  unwilling  and  unable  immediately  to  de- 
cide the  rather  intricate  question  of  the  status  of  a  dis- 
senting minister  in  the  province,  without  opportunity 
for  consultation,  and  possibly  for  reference  to  authori- 
ties in  England  for  advice. 

In  May,  1706,  Mr.  Boyd  appearing  again  before  them, 
he  was  permitted  to  "  qualify  "  by  subscribing  to  the 
provisions  of  three  acts,  made  in  the  reigns  of  Elizabeth, 
Charles  11.,  and  William  and  Mary,  which  contained 
an  abjuration  of  Transubstantiation,  an  assent  to  the 
doctrine  of  the  Trinity  as  taught  in  the  xxxix  Articles 
and  the  Oaths  of  Allegiance  and  Supremacy;^^  all  being 
contained  in  the  Toleration  Act  of  1689,  which  freed 
dissenting  ministers  from  the  obnoxious  restrictions  of 
the  Five  Mile  Act  and  Conventicle  Act. 


CHAPTER  III. 


THE  FIRST  PRESB  } 'TER  J '  MEE TING. 
The  First  Page  of  the  3Iinntes.     The  Beginning  of  American  Presbyterian 
Church     History.       AIcKemie.       Andrezcs.       Hampton.      No    Elders 
Present.      The  Ordination. 

"  De  Regimine  ecclesise."  Concerning  the  govern- 
ment of  the  chnrch — with  these  striking  and  characteris- 
tic words,  in  the  midst  of  a  broken  sentence,  the  history 
of  the  Presbyterian  church  in  America  begins.  This 
incomplete  phrase  ushers  us  into  the  midst  of  an  inter- 
esting scene.  The  place  is  the  "  Old  Scots  "  church  of 
Freehold,  or  some  spot  near  it,  the  day  is  Friday,  De- 
cember 27th,  1706.  The  revered  Francis  McKemie, 
"  Father  of  the  American  Presbyterian  Church,"  is 
occupying  with  appropriateness  the  Moderator's  chair, 
the  other  ministers  present  are  Jedediah  Andrews  of 
Philadelphia,  and  John  Hampton  of  Maryland,  and  the 
Presbyterial  action  is  the  examination  of  Rev.  John 
Boyd,  with  a  view  to  his  ordination  to  the  gospel  minis- 
try and  his  connection  with  the  Freehold  church. 

A  reproduction  of  this  first  page  of  the  minutes  of  the 
Presbytery  of  Philadelphia  is  given  herewith. 

"  1706.  De  Regimine  ecclesise,  which  being  heard  was  approved  of  and  sus- 
tained.    He  gave  in  also  his  thesis  to  be  considered  of  against  next  sederunt. 

Sederunt  2d,  lobris,  27. 

Post  preces  sederunt,  Mr.  Francis  McKemie,  Moderator,  Messrs.  Jedidiah 
Andrews  and  John  Hampton,  Ministers. 

Mr.  John  Boyd  performed  the  other  parts  of  his  tryals,  viz.  preached  a  pop- 
ular sermon  on  John  i.  12;  defendetl  his  thesis;  gave  satisfaction  as  to  his 


20  THE        OLD    SCOTS        CHITRCH. 

skill  in  the  Languages,  and  answered   to  exteniporar}'  questions;  all   which 
were  approved  of  and  sustained. 

Appointed  his  ordination  to  be  on  ye  next  Lord's  day,  ye  29th  inst. , 
which  was  accordingly  performed  in  the  publick  meeting  house  of  this  place, 
before  a  numerous  assembly;  and  the  next  day  he  had  ye  Certificat  of  his 
ordination." 

This  memorable  scene  is  the  beginning  of  organic 
Presbyterian  history  in  the  new  world.  This  is  the  first 
known  Presbyter}^  meeting,  and  the  first  known  Pres- 
byterian ordination.  There  nia}^  have  been  Presbytery 
meetings  and  ordinations  prior  to  this.  There  probab- 
ly were  ordinations  before  this,  and  ordinations  presup- 
pose a  Presbytery  to  ordain. ^*^  Yet  in  tracing  back  to 
its  sources  the  wondrous  course  of  the  development  of 
the  church,  histor}^  stops  at  John  Boyd,  and  the  "  Old 
Scots  "  meeting  house  of  Freehold.  Back  of  this  point 
lie  the  uncertainties  of  tradition  or  conjecture.  Onward 
from  this,  all  is  clear,  cogent  and  connected.  From  the 
threshold  of  the  little  meeting  house  on  Free  Hill  began 
the  tiny  current  of  the  stream,  which,  as  in  the  prophet's 
vision,  has  spread  through  distant  deserts,  deepening 
in  its  progress,  watering  thirsty  places,  and  bringing  its 
nourishment  to  the  trees  of  life. 

All  of  the  men  appearing  in  this  scene  are  well-known. 
Francis  McKemie,  the  apostle  of  Presbyterlanism,  foun- 
der of  half  a  dozen  churches  in  Maryland,  energetic, 
practical,  determined,  devout,  the  embodiment  of  the 
Scotch-Irish  character,  presides  with  fitness  over  the 
gathering,  for  no  other  man  had  been  more  active  or 
successful  in  fostering  the  nascent  Presbj'terianism 
scattered  throughout  the  land.  He  was  at  this  time  on 
a  trip  eastward  and  three  weeks  later,  after  preaching 
in  New  York  and  Newtown,  together  with  Hampton, 
was   arrested   by   Governor   Cornbur}^  on   the   frivolous 


^, 


%^'..  >i>iW'l     :r-; 


t 


V 


^r^//^<-'' 


,^•4 


"OT?  ^Y^sy  '^:;:;ii>  ^  •   -  ■     ^ 


«^«  »<<//t  Wi-?  ■MTfte't.  TlMr^   f»n»- aiwvrcr"^-   - 


i;. 


The   "First  Page"  of  the  Minutes  of  the  Presbytery  of  Philadelphia:  the 
Account  of  the  Ordination  of  Rev.  John  Boyd  of  Freehold. 

[Kindness  of  Presbyterian  Historical  Societv.l 


THE    FIRST    PRESBYTERY    MEETING.  21 

charge  of  preaching  without  the  Governor's  license.  Af- 
ter imprisonment,  he  was  released  on  bail,  and  although 
subsequentl}^  acquitted,  was  unjustly  compelled  to  pay 
heavy  costs.  The  indignation  aroused  by  this  out- 
rage throughout  the  colonies  and  in  England  was  one 
^of  the  many  causes  determining  Combury's  recall  the 
following  year.  McKemie  died  in  1708,  "  a  venerable 
and  imposing  character,  distinguished  for  pietj^,  learn- 
ing, and  much  steady  resolution  and  perseverance.'' 
[Hodge's  Histor\',  i.  76.] 

Jedediah  Andre  vvs  was  the  first  pastor  of  the  first 
Presb3^terian  church  of  Philadelphia.  He  was  graduat- 
ed from  Harvard  College  in  1695.  He  came  to  Phila- 
delphia in  1698  and  took  charge  of  the  Presbyterian 
congregation  who  had  previously  worshipped  with  the 
Baptists  in  the  "  store  house  on  Barbadoes  lot."  Mr. 
Andrews  attended  ever\^  recorded  meeting  of  Presbj^tery 
and  Synod,  from  this  first  meeting  at  Freehold  until 
his  death,  forty  years  afterward.  He  was  thrice  moder- 
ator of  the  Presbytery  and  of  the  Synod  of  Philadelphia. 
He  was  a  peace  maker  in  the  constitutional  debates  of 
1 72 1  and  1729,  a  moderate  man  who  neither  protested 
nor  signed  counter-protests.^^ 

John  Hampton,  the  third  presbyter  present,  had  come 
from  Ireland  in  1705,  under  McKemie's  charge,  and 
supported  b}^  the  London  ministers.  He  was  pastor  of 
the  lately  organized  church  at  Snowhill,  Maryland.  It 
is  worthy  of  notice  that  McKemie,  Hampton  and  Boyd 
had  all  been  students  at  Glasgow  University;  McKemie 
in  1675,  Hampton  in  1696,  and  Boyd  in  1701.^^ 

Dr.  Hodge,  in  his  History  of  the  Presbyterian  Church, 
[i.  95]  notes  the  fact  that  this  first  Presbytery  meeting 
at  Freehold  is  the  only  one  in  the  records  at  which  no 


2  2  THE    "old    scots"    CHURCH. 

elders  sat  as  members  of  the  body.  The  lack  of  a  rep- 
resentative of  the  church  with  which  they  were  meeting 
is  the  more  remarkable  on  account  of  the  excellent  and 
godly  men,  such  as  Walter  Ker  and  others,  who  were 
in  the  direction  of  the  spiritual  matters  of  the  church. 

Upon  the  following  Sabbath,  was  performed  the  sol- 
emn act  of  dedicating  the  life  of  the  young  minister  to 
the  service  of  the  Church  of  God.  Upon  his  brow  in 
this  symbolic  ritual  descended  the  ordination  touch  of 
the  old  world  ministr}^  The  new  order  of  the  American 
presbytery  was  born  that  day.  The  difficult  question 
of  validity  of  ordination  which  brought  dissension  into 
other  churches,  such  as  the  Dutch  Presbyterian  church 
of  America,  was  solved  in  the  act.  John  Boyd  heads 
the  long  list  of  Presbyters  in  the  ordination  roll  of  the 
American  Presb\4erian  Churches. 

By  the  actions  on  these  two  days,  the  Freehold  Church 
became  the  first  recognized  Presbyterian  Church  in  New 
Jerse3^  "  In  Jersey,  the  Church  in  Freehold  was  the 
only  one  at  first  belonging  to  the  Presbyter^',"  [Hodge, 
i.  75.]  Abraham  Pierson,  who  was  at  Newark  in  1667, 
Jeremiah  Peck,  at  Elizabethtown  in  1668,  Benjamin 
Salsbury,  at  Woodbridge  in  1674,  and  Thomas  Bridge, 
at  Cohanzy  in  1692,  all  ministered  to  apparently  Inde- 
pendent congregations.  The  churches  at  Woodbridge 
and  Cohanzy  came  into  connection  with  the  Presb3'tery 
two  years  later,  in  1708,^^  the  churches  of  Maidenhead 
and  Hopewell  followed  in  1709.^^ 

On  that  last  Sabbath  day  of  the  year  1706,  the  Cov- 
enanters gathered  wdth  gladness,  at  the  sound  of  the 
conch  shell,  or  the  rolling  drum,  in  their  house  of  relig- 
ious assembly.  One  whose  services  had  been  approved 
by  over  a  3^ear  of  trial,  the  man  of  their  choice,  and  of 


THE    FIRST    PRESBYTERY    MEETING.  23 

their  nation,  was  to  be  empowered  to  exercise  liis  full 
ministr}',  and  to  administer  to  them  the  precious  sacra- 
ments of  the  Church  of  Christ.  For  the  first  time  in 
the  lives  of  most  of  them,  the  exiles  of  1685  would  now 
enjo}^  the  full  privileges  of  the  church  which  they  had 
loved  and  suffered  for;  privileges  which  they  had  been 
denied  by  t3^rannous  intolerance  in  their  native  land, 
and  by  the  undeveloped  character  of  their  church  life  in 
their  new  home. 

The  throngs  that  would  assemble,  drawn  by  deep  and 
prayerful  interest  in  the  events,  or  by  the  curiosity  ex- 
cited by  the  wide  reputation  of  Francis  McKemie, might 
not  be  contained  wnthin  the  narrow  walls;  and  some  of 
those  outside  the  building  would  pass  above  the  spot 
where  less  than  two  years  later  rested  the  ashes  of  the 
young  Presbyter,  who  this  day  was  consecrating  the  ar-; 
dor  of  his  youth  to  the  service  of  the  Church  of  Christ. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


REW  JOHN  BOYD. 
His    Past.     His  Ministry  Prior  to    Ordination.     His  Examination.     His 
Ordination.      His   Three  Overtures  in  Presbytery.     His  Mission    Work. 
Contemporaneous  Events.     His  Tombstone.      Its  Inscription.     Its  Con- 
dition.    Its  Proper  Preservation. 

Concerning  the  histor}^  of  the  first  minister  of  Free- 
hold, but  little  is  known  before  his  appearance  at  the 
County  court  in  1705.^^  A  John  Boyd  appears  on  the 
list  of  Lord  Neil  Canipbeirs  expedition  of  16S5,  a  time 
when  Boyd  of  Freehold,  from  the  dates  upon  his  tomb- 
stone, was  five  or  six  years  of  age.  On  March  11,  1701, 
the  name  John  Boyd  is  enrolled  in  the  fourth  class 
in  Glasgow  University,  with  signs  that  he  was  a  native 
of  Scotland.^^  The  general  belief  was  that  the  Freehold 
minister  came  from  Scotland.^^  Webster,  [Histor3%  p. 
90]  considers  it  not  unlikely  that  he  came  over  with 
McKemie,  McNish  and  Hampton  in  the  autumn  of  1705. 

Since  the  Monmouth  Court,  in  December,  1705,  term- 
ed Boyd  "  Minnister  of  3^e  said  Presbiterians,"  a  whole 
year  before  he  had  received  ordination  at  the  hands  of 
the  Presbytery,  and  also  "  qualified  "  him  before  he  had 
gained  full  ecclesiastical  standing  as  a  minister,  it  may 
be  assumed  that  Mr.  Boyd,  in  proper  and  orderly'  man- 
ner, had  been  exercising  his  function  as  a  licensed 
preacher,  for  at  least  a  year  in  Freehold  before  the  Pres- 
bytery meeting  of  1706. 

Mr.  John  Boyd's  examination  for  ordination  before 
Presbytery    on    December    27th,  1706,  which    included 


Rm'.    JOHN    BOYD.  25 

''  skill  in  the  languages,"  a  thesis  to  be  defended,  a 
Latin  essay  "  De  Regimine  ecclesiae,"  and  a  popular  ser- 
mon, indicate  an  academic  and  university  training,  cor- 
roborating the  view  that  he  had  been  a  student  at  Glas- 
gow University.  The  chosen-  text  for  his  sermon  was 
John  i:  12,  "  But  as  many  as  received  him,  to  them  gave 
he  power  to  become  the  sons  of  God,  even  to  them  that  be- 
lieve on  his  name."  This  is  one  of  those  texts  that 
Luther  aptly  names  ''  little  Bibles,"  and  in  it  the  young 
preacher,  before  his  stern  but  kindl}^  critics,  could  man- 
ifest his  ability  to  expound,  defend  and  apply  the  great 
doctrines  of  Election,  Adoption,  Faith  and  Conversion. 

His  ordination,  on  the  following  Lord's  da}-,  did  not 
lead  to  his  installation  as  pastor  of  the  Freehold  church- 
There  is  also  no  record  of  the  installation  of  his  sue. 
cessor  in  the  ministry  at  Freehold,  and  that  the  act  of  in- 
stallation was  not  then  universally  observed  is  seen  in  the 
fact  that  William  Tennent,  Sr.,  in  1736,  is  found  in  the 
minutes  of  Synod  not  to  have  been  installed  over  the 
Neshaminy  church,  with  whom  he  had  lived  for  ten 
3'ears;  the  Synod  declaring  that  "he  is  still  to  be  es- 
teemed as  the  pastor  of  that  people,  notwithstanding  the 
want  of  a  formal  installment  among  them." 

Mr.  Boyd  became  an  active  and  efficient  member  of 
the  Presbytery,  for  the  following  year,  1707,  in  the  meet- 
ing at  Philadelphia,  although  his  name  is  omitted  from 
the  list  of  those  present,  he  is  appointed,  with  Rev. 
Jedediah  Andrews,  to  "  prepare  some  overtures  to  be 
considered  by  the  Presbj^tery,  for  propagating  religion 
in  their  respective  congregations."  On  the  next  da}- 
the  overtures  are  presented  and  agreed  upon.  They 
are  as  follows: 

"First:    That  every  minister  in  their  respective  cont^regations,   read  and 


26  THE    "old    scots"    CHURCH. 

comment  upon  a  chapter  of  the  Bible  every  Lord's  day,   as  discretion  and 
circumstances  of  time,  place,  etc.,  will  admit." 

The  hand  of^Mr.  Boyd  may  be  seen  in  this  first  over- 
ture for  the  reason  that  in  the  following  year,  Mr.  An- 
drews is  mentioned  by  name  as  not  having  complied 
with  the  provisions. 

"Second  over  :  That  it  be  recommended  to  every  minister  of  the  Presby- 
tery to  set  on  foot  and  encourage  private  Christian  societies." 

The  bearing  and  significance  of  this  injunction  is  not 
clear.  It  would  appear  as  prophetic  of  the  multitudes 
of  Leagues,  and  Young  People's  Societies,  and  Mission 
organizations  and  Bands,  Brotherhoods  and  Clubs, which 
are  buzzing  so  actively  in  the  machinery  of  the  modern 
church,  the 

"Wheels  within  wheels 
With  living  creatures  wedded." 

The  third  overture  relates  to  the  aggressive  work  of 
Home  Missions,  Synodical  or  local. 

"Third  over.:  That  every  minister  of  the  Pre.sl)ytery  supply  neighbour- 
ing desolate  places  where  a  minister  is  wanting,  and  opportunity  of  doing 
good  offers." 

The  spirit  of  John  Boyd  is  in  this  recommendation 
also,  for  along  with  his  Presbyterial  appointment  at  Co- 
lianzy,  in  West  Jersey,  participating  in  an  ordination 
service,  he  was  also  directed,  with  the  consent  of  his 
Freehold  congregation,  to  proceed  every  third  week  to 
Woodbridge,  where  the  Scottish  portion  of  the  congre- 
gation, apparently  in  antagonism  with  the  older  New 
England  settlers,  might  profit  by  his  sympathy  and  ad- 
vice. 

Like  his  successor,  Morgan,  Mr.  Boyd  probably 
preached  in  various  parts  of  Monmouth  county,  besides 
the  meeting  house  upon  Free  Hill.  At  Middletown^* 
and    Shrewsbury,    in  the  neighborhood  of  the  present 


RFA'.    JOHN    HOYD.  2 7 

Tenneiit  church,  and  in  the  regions  of  Allentown,  or 
Crosswicks,  he  found  opportunity  to  proclaim  the  faith- 
ful message  of  his  Master,  sowing  the  first  seeds  of  the 
Gospel  upon  soil  that  still  bears  fruit  of  his  ardent  and 
unrecorded  labors. 

The  twenty  short  months  of  his  ministry  were  con- 
temporaneous with  the  most  brilliant  portions  of  the 
reign  of  ''Good  Queen  Anne,"  and  Marlborough's  suc- 
cesses at  Ramillies  and  Oudenarde  were  celebrated  in 
the  Jersey  colonies  with  loyalty  and  enthusiasm.  The 
Kingdoms  of  England  and  Scotland  were  united  in 
1707,  and  the  intensity  of  feeling  between  patriots  of 
the  two  British  nationalities,  which  had  been  manifested 
in  bitter  party  spirit  in  East  Jersey,  was  mitigated  and 
in  time  removed. 

A  letter  presented  by  the  Freehold  people  to  Presb}-- 
tery,  in  1708,  "about  the  settlement  of  Mr.  Boyd  is  re- 
ferred to  the  next  meeting."  His  premature  and  ap- 
parently sudden  death  in  the  summer  of  that  year  ends 
the  matter;  or,  as  quaintl}'  expressed  in  the  Presbytery 
minutes  of  1709,  ''The  Rev.  Mr.  John  Boyd  being  dead, 
what  relates  to  him  ceases." 

The  tombstone  of  Mr.  Boyd  stands  in  a  conspicuous 
spot  in  the  center  of  the  church  grounds,  close  to  the 
site  of  the  building.  It  is  of  brown  sandstone,  some 
four  feet  in  height.  The  stone  faces  the  east,  and  as 
the  rays  of  the  sun  at  noon-tide  strike  across  the  worn 
and  weather-beaten  front,  the  long  Latin  inscription, 
covering  the  stone  to  the  edges,  stands  out  with  char- 
acters that  are  decipherable  through  most  of  the  sixteen 
lines. 


28  THE    "  OLD    SCOTS  "    CHURCH. 

ENTIvSSIMI  DOMINI  JOANNIS 
BODIJ  CINERES  ECCLESIAE  HUJUvS  CAL 
VINI  PASTOR  HIC  DEFODIUNTUR 
EI  OPERAM  OUAMVIS  STERU  BOLL?) 
CONvSUMPTAM  NON  PERDIDIT 
QUI  ILLUM  PERNOVERUNT  AQ 
VIRTUTIBUS  IN  ED(?)  INATIS  ILLO  TE 
MPORE  DIGNITATEM  EIUS  EX 
PLORAVERUNT  LECTOR  VESTIG 
lA  ILLIUS  PERSEVERE  ET  (?) 
E(?)EA  TEMPORE  SPERO  MOR 
TEM  OBIIT  TRIGESIMO  DIE 
AUGUvSTi  MILLESIMO  SEP 
TEM  CENTESIMO  OCTAVO 
AETATIS  SUAE  VICESIMO 
NONO 

"The  ashes  of  the  very  pious  Rev.  John  Boyd 
Pastor  of  this  church  of  Calvin,  are  here  buried, 
whose  labour,  although  expended  on  a  sterile  soil, 
was  not  lost. 

They  who  knew  him  well  also  proved  his  worth  as  (?) 
in  virtues. 

Reader,  persevere  in  his  footsteps,  and  I  hope 
in  that  time  (?) 

He  died  on  the  thirtieth  day  of  August, 
one  thousand,  seven  hundred  and  eight, 
in  the  twenty-ninth  3-ear  of  his  age." 

What  relic  of  the  primitive  Pre.sbyteriaiii.sni  of  the  land 
should  be  more  prized,  more  jealousl}^  guarded,  and 
more  reverently  preserved  than  this  memorial  of  the 
first  born  of  American  Presbyterian  ministers,  who  was 
the  first  also  to  fall  from  the  ranks  of  the  ministry,  and 
find  burial  in  the  new  continent  ? 

In  some  place  of  protection  from  the  storms  that  for 
well  nigh  one  hundred  and  ninety  ^^ears  have  been 
striving  to  efface  its  significance,  in  a  spot  where  will  be 
the  recognition  of  its  value  as  a  historical  and  ecclesias- 
tical monument,  this  weather-beaten,  but  time-honored 
stone  should  rest,    and    in    its    place,    should    stand    a 


The  Tombstone  of  Rev.  John  Boyd,  First  Minister  of  Freehold.     The  F'irst 
Presbyterian  Minister  Ordained  in  America. 


RRW    JOHN    P.OYD.  29 

replica  of  the  original,  joined  with  a  suitable  and  stately 
memorial  of  the  "First  Presbytery  Meeting,"  when  the 
Presbyterianism  of  the  continent  first  woke  to  conscious 
life. 


CHAPTER  Y. 


REW  JOSEI'H  M  ORG  AX. 
His   Early  Life  and  Prior  Settlements.     His  Qiialifyiui^.     His  Conneetioii 
With  tlie  PiiteJi  ChnreJi.      U'if/i  f tie  Presbytery.     His  Inventions.     His 
Publications.     His  'Pract  on  Clutrcli  Cnity.     llie  Cliary^es  Aoainst  Hnn. 
Missionary  .Ictii'ity.     His  f.ater  Life. 

The  second  minister  of  the  Church  was  the  Rev. 
Joseph  Morgan,  a  man  of  literary  ability  and  versatile 
gifts,  a  ready  and  prolific  writer,  whose  absorption  in 
mechanical  inventions,  and  in  essays  on  Predestination 
and  Church  Unity,  followed  by  periods  of  spiritual 
earnestness  and  fervor,  left  a  mingled  and  dubious 
impression  upon  his  strict  Scotch  congregation.  His 
reputation  was  lessened  by  his  evident  short-comings, 
and  by  contrast  v\dth  the  fame  of  his  illustrious  successors 
of  the  honored  name  of  Tennent. 

Rev.  Joseph  Morgan  was  born  in  New  London,  Conn. 
November  6,  1674,^'^  of  stock  of  which  he  himself  said 
"  that  [for  Americans]  they  are  a  credible  famil}-." 
He  was  ordained  by  the  Association  of  Ministers  of 
Fairfield  County,  Conn.  He  was  at  Greenwich  in  1696,^^ 
Bedford  in  1700,  Eastchester,  and  Westchester,  where, 
in  1704,  he  was  dispossessed  of  his  charge  by  Lord  Corn- 
bury,  who  placed  Rev.  John  Bartow,  Missionary  of  the 
S.  P.  G.,  in  his  place. ^'  Mr.  Morgan  then  retired  to 
New  England,  probably  again  to  Greenwich. 

The  statement  is  made,  on  high  authority,  that  he 
was  one  of  the  graduates  of  Yale  College  in  the  first 
class  that  completed  a  regular  course  in  that  institution, 
in  1702,  two  years  before  the  college  received  its  corpor- 
ate powers. '^^     President  Woolse}'  wrote  that  "  some  in- 


RFA'.    JOSKPH     MORGAN.  3 1 

terest  is  attached  to  Mr.  Morgan  from  the  fact  that  he 
was  not  only  one  of  the  members  of  the  first  class  in 
Yale  College,  but  also  the  only  one  who  did  not  also 
take  his  degree  at  Harvard,  that  is  the  only  one  verit- 
ably educated  at  Yale  alone. "'■^^ 

Mr,  Morgan  came  to  Freehold  in  the  latter  part  of 
the  year  1708,  or  in  1709.  He  appeared  before  the  court 
to  qualify  in  September,  1709,  and  is  then  termed  "  Min- 
ister of  ye  Presbiterians  in  Freehold  and  Middletown." 
Mr.  Morgan  was  ''  presented  b}^  several  of  said  congre- 
gation, viz.:  Jacob  Lane,  John  Wicof,  John  Sutfin, 
William  Hendrickson,  John  Essmith,  William  Wilkins, 
and  Auri  Marbison,  in  behalf  of  themselves  and  the  rest 
of  their  breathren."  The  first  three  of  these  names 
were  in  the  communion  of  the  Dutch  Reformed  Church 
of  Freehold,  the  other  four  are  said  to  represent  the 
Presbyterian  church.'^*'  Between  Mr.  Morgan's  applica- 
tion to  the  court  and  his  qualifying,  he  was  installed 
on  October  17,  1709,  as  first  pastor  of  the  Reformed 
Church,  of  Freehold  and  Middletown,  a  double  congre- 
gation of  Dutch  settlers,  sometimes  called  "  the  congre- 
gation of  the  Navesink,"  the  second  act  of  installation 
in  the  Reformed  Church  in  the  Jersies.^^  He  was 
received  as  a  member  of  the  Presbytery  of  Philadelphia, 
after  debate,  in  September,  1710.  At  this  meeting  the 
following  action  is  taken: 

"  It  beinj(  reported  that  one  W'alter  Kerr  defamed  the  Presbytery,  and  Mr. 
Morgan,  minister  to  said  Kerr,  desiring  advice  therein  how  to  behave,  it  was 
referred  to  the  said  Mr  Morgan  to  take  cognizance  of  the  offence,  and  to  act 
either  by  private  or  public  censure,  as  the  nature  of  the  thing  should  appear 
to  him,  and  that  report  thereof  should  be  made  next  meeting." 

The  differences  between  Walter  Ker  and  the  Presb}-- 
tery  may  probably  be  resolved  into  differences  betwe(Mi 
Ker  and   Alorgan,  for  the  sturdy  consistent  old  Coven- 


32  THE    "old    scots"    CHURCH. 

anter,  with  his  strict  notions  of  the  Chnrch  and  zeal  for 
the  advancement  of  his  own  faith,  wonld  probably  not 
relish  the  nnion  with  the  Reformed  congregation  nnder 
Morgan's  ministry,  nor  would  his  hard  Scotch  sense 
appreciate  many  of  the  eccentric  Dominie's  schemes  and 
dreams. 

Althongh  Mr.  Morgan's  ecclesiastical  connection  from 
this  time  onward  was  with  the  Presbytery  and  Synod  of 
Philadelphia,  he  appears  to  have  received  more  sym- 
pathy and  more  snpport  from  the  Dutch  than  from  the 
Scotch  congregation.  He  occupied  the  parsonage  belong- 
ing to  the  Dutch  church  with  a  glebe  of  "one  hundred 
acres  of  good  arable  land,  as  good  as  any  in  Freehold,  on 
which  a  family  may  subsist  comfortably  ;  "  and  on  which 
the  Dominie  seems  to  have  li\'ed  comfortably  indeed, 
realizing  from  it  thirty  pounds  a  year,  "  besides  his  own 
bread."''' 

Mr.  Morgan  appeared  at  the  original  Presbytery  of 
Philadelphia  only  once  after  his  reception  in  1710.  His 
continued  absences  prompt  the  Presbytery  in  1716  to 
direct  Jedediah  Andrews  to  write  him  a  letter  "inform- 
ing him  that  if  he  comes  not,  nor  sends  sufficient 
reasons  against  next  year,  we  shall  take  it  for  granted 
that  he  has  altogether  deserted  us."  The  loss  of  the 
Presbytery  minutes  of  the  following  year  do  not  allow 
us  to  know  the  result  of  this  mild  warning. 

An  explanation  of  his  absence  from  Presbyter}-  during 
these  years  appears  in  the  Archives  of  New  Jerse}' 
for  1 7 14,  [i  series,  iv.,  190-195].  It  is  a  communi- 
cation from  Mr.  Morgan  to  the  Lords  of  Trade  concern- 
ing a  wondrous  scheme  for  the  improvement  of  navi- 
gation by  an  invention,  which  will  work  against  wdnd 
at  sea,    will   save   many    a  ship    from  ship-wreck,  will 


RF,V.    JOSEPH     MORGAN.  33 

shorten  voyages  by  many  weeks  and  months,  and  be 
excellent  in  war.  This  prophecy  of  the  days  of  steam, 
and  ocean  grey-hounds,  consists  in  a  combination  of 
wheels,  cranks,  booms,  and  oars,  "Found  out  in  ye  year 
1 71 2  [to  1 714]  by  Joseph  Morgan  of  Freehold  in  New 
Jersey  in  North  America."  There  follows  a  description 
of  thirteen  modes  of  applying  the  invention  to  ships  so 
that  "if  any  one  of  these  thirteen  ways  be  good  my  art  is 
good,  although  twelve  of  ye  ways  were  good  for  nothing." 
Beside  his  experiments  exhibited  before  "The  Governour 
and  Assembly  and  City  of  New  York"  [on  June  17th, 
1714,]  and  his  writing  to  "ye  Governour  of  Boston  with  3^e 
same  desire  "  his  brain  was  occupied  with  "another  art 
(hitherto  unknown  to  the  world)  of  far  (3'ea  an  hun- 
dred times)  greater  consequence  and  benefit  to  the 
world,  '  an  art  unfortunately  still  unrevealed.  He 
published  in  the  same  year  a  treatise  on  Bap- 
tism, reviewing  the  "  Portsmouth  disputation  exam- 
ined." If  we  add  his  quiet  practice  of  astrolog}^,  it  is 
little  wonder  that,  as  he  confessed  to  Cotton  Mather, 
a  few  years  later,  "  he  had  no  leisure  for  reading, 
nor  for  writing  discourses  for  the  church,  and  often 
knew  not  my  text  before  the  Sabbath." 

Mr.  Morgan  published  a  number  of  his  writings.  A 
sermon  preached  at  his  own  ordination,  and  also  at  the 
ordination  of  Jonathan  Dickinson, at  Elizabethtown,  Sept. 
29th,  1709,  was  published  in  New  York  in  1712.^^ 
The  next  j^ear  came  his  treatise  on  Baptism  f*  he  sent 
to  Mather  a  treatise  against  the  Deists  ;  then  followed 
"A  Remedy  for  mortal  errors,  showing  the  necessity  for 
the  Anointing  of  the  Spirit"  ;  in  1724  he  published  a 
"  Reply  to  an  anonymous  Railer  against  the  doctrine 
of  Election."      He  tells  Mather  he  hopes  this  Book  will 


34  THE        OLD    SCOTS        CHURCH. 

remove  the  prejudices  "which  half  the  couiitr}-  here 
away,  and  almpst  the  other  half  too,  have  against  our 
Confession  of  faith/'  His  orthodoxy  is  unquestioned, 
for  "  of  all  the  agencies  Satan  has  formed  against 
our  Salvation,  the  most  effectual  is  Arminianism."  It 
is  to  be  feared  that  in  this  treatise  his  statements  in  re- 
gard to  the  divisive  doctrine  of  Christendom  were  not 
couched  in  such  conciliatory  mode  as  in  a  previous  work 
which  he  sent  in  171S  to  the  S.  P.  G.,  the  Missionary 
Society  of  the  English  Established  Church,  on  ''  The 
most  effectual  Way  to  Propagate  the  Gospel  ;  "  for  he 
declares  that  in  this  work  his  unfolding  of  the  doctrine  of 
Predestination  was  approved  both  by  keen  opponents  of 
the  doctrine  and  by  strong  Predestinarians,  ''  which  is  a 
circumstance  to  hope  that  it  is  a  platform  [as  the  author 
proposes]  to  reconcile  the  grievous  contentions  by  which 
the  Church  is  rent  to  pieces  and  laid  to  the  mercy  of  ye 
adversary." 

But  apparentl}^  he  received  no  more  commendation 
from  the  authorities  of  the  Established  Church  than  he 
had  from  his  own  Presbyterian  brethren,  who  as  he 
naivel}'  confesses,  told  him  that  his  language  was  too 
mean  for  him  to  be  capable  to  be  a  writer  of  books,  and 
also  informed  him,  "  which  allmost  broke  his  heart,'' 
that  his  hypothesis  was  not  true !  His  hypothesis 
being  the  unity  of  the  church. '^'^ 

This  action  of  his  in  making  overtures  of  recon- 
ciliation to  the  Episcopal  church  would  probably  not 
endear  him  to  the  Scotch,  who  had  been  taught  bj- 
bitterest  experience  to  identify  Prelacy  with  all  that  was 
tyrannical  and  unjust.  It  would  also  rouse  the  ire 
of  the  sturdy  Dutch  Dominies  ;  and  Theodorus  Jacobus 
Frelinghuysen  of  Raritan,  the  most  prominent  Reformed 


REX.    JOSEPH     MORGAN.  35 

minister  in  the  central  portion  of  the  State,  accordingly 
denonnced  Morgan  as  the  "friend  and  advocate  of  a  life- 
less, God-dishononring  formalism."  Possibly  the  fact 
that  Morgan  was  willing  to  baptize  the  children  of  dis- 
affected members  of  Frelinghnysen's  congregation  may 
have  added  nnction  to  the  good  Dutchman's  testimony 
against  formalism  as  embodied  in  the  person  of  the 
visionar}'  minister  of  Freehold,^'^ 

In  the  first  constitutional  debates  in  the  S3'nod  in 
1 72 1,  Mr.  Morgan,  along  with  Jonathan  Dickinson, took 
the  position  of  dissent  from  Synod's  supremac}^  and 
authority  in  framing  acts  of  discipline  and  government 
which  should  have  coercive  force  upon  ''  subordinate 
judicatories." 

The  following  year  the  dissidents,  while  acknowledg- 
ing the  power  of  the  keys,  and  the  authoritj^  of  Synod 
in  matters  of  appeal,  3'et  hold,  with  the  apparently  unani- 
mous endorsement  of  the  Synod,  the  position  that 
"  Synods  may  compose  directories  and  recommend  them 
to  all  their  members,  respecting  all  the  parts  of  disci- 
pline, provided  that  all  subordinate  judicatories  may 
decline  from  such  directories  when  they  conscientiousl}^ 
think  they  have  just  cause  to  do  so.'  This  remarkable 
compromise  was  hailed  with  acclamations  of  thanksgiv- 
ing and  praise,  and  was  considered  the  solution  of  the 
relation  of  the  Courts  of  the  Church. 

In  the  more  important  debate  of  1729,  on  the  Adoption 
of  the  Westminster  standards,  Mr.  Morgan  was  absent 
although  "  timeous  notice  thereof"  was  given.  The 
troubles  in  his  own  congregation  which  had  culminated 
in  the  grave  and  varied  charges  brought  against 
him,  by  some  in  the  congregation  led  to  his  separation 
from  the  Presbyterian  church  of  Freehold  in  the  3'ear 
1729  or  1730. 


36  THE    "  OLD    SCOTS  "    CHURCH. 

These  charges  were  before  the  Synod  of  1728,  pre. 
sumably  on  an, appeal  from  the  Presbytery  of  Philadel- 
phia. They  were  seven  in  number.  On  the  first  three 
he  is  sustained ;  Synod  holding  on  the  third,  that  ''  the 
accusers  had  no  just  ground  for  separation  on  that 
score."  The  fourth  accusation  is  the  curious  charge  of 
Mr.  Morgan's  practice  of  the  art  of  astrology.  The 
actions  complained  of  had  been  performed  in  the  earlier 
part  of  his  ministry  at  Freehold,  in  the  days  of  his 
navigation  schemes,  for  his  accusers  have  ''  partook 
with  him  in  sealing  ordinances  many  years  after  the 
things  were  done  they  complain  of."  Nevertheless, 
Synod  finds  more  in  this  charge  than  in  the  others  and 
"  cannot  clear  Mr.  Morgan  from  imprudence  and  mis- 
conduct in  making  the  two  alleged  experiments  of  that 
kind,  if  the  reports  be  true,  were  his  ends  never  so  good 
and  laudable."  The  "  two  alleged  experiments  "  are 
unfortunately  mentioned  no  further. 

"  As  to  the  fifth  article,  although  the  Synod  do  not 
approve  promiscuous  dancing,  yet  the}^  jndge  it  a  clear 
indication  of  the  captious  and  querulous  spirit  of  Mr. 
Morgan's  accusers,  that  they  offer  such  a  complaint 
against  him."  This  is  taken  by  many  to  mean  Mr. 
Morgan's  "  countenancing  "  dancing. 

The  last  charge  is  the  unfortunate  one  of  intemper- 
ance, which  the  Synod  holds  to  be  groundless.  The 
Synod  three  years  later,  (1731)  elected  him  Moderator, 
as  though  to  show  their  confidence  in  him.  Mr.  Mor- 
gan's subsequent  troubles  when  connected  with  the 
Churches  of  Hopewell  and  Maidenhead,  have  been  held 
by  many  to  have  been  caused  by  intemperance  also, 
although  there  is  no  mention  of  the  cause  in  the  censure 
and  suspension,  for  a  time,  on  account  of  "  gross  scan- 
dals "  and  "  repeated  miscarriages." 


REV.    JOSEPH     MORGAN.  37 

Dr.  McLean,  in  his  lecture  on  Joseph  Morgan,  says 
that  "  as  there  was  no  hope  of  his  promoting  peace  and 
union  or  of  his  being  farther  useful  he  resigned  his 
charge."  His  last  connection  with  the  Presbyterians  is 
contained  in  the  records  of  the  Tennent  Church. 

October  15th,  1730.  The  Revd.  Mr.  Joseph  Morgan  [having  made  a  com- 
plaint against  this  congregation  that  they  owed  him  above  200  pounds  arrears 
of  Sallerie]  met  the  congregation  at  the  Old  Scots  meeting  House,  where 
accompts  were  fairly  made  up,  and  Mr.  Morgan  gave  the  congregation  a  Dis- 
charge in  full  "37 

His  last  scenes  with  the  Dutch  congregation  were 
more  agreeable.  He  remained  with  them  until  1731, 
preaching  his  farewell  sermon  on  August  31,  when  the 
short  period  of  John  Tenuent's  active  ministry  in  the 
Presbyterian  Church  was  nearly  ended. 

The  Consistory  of  the  Dutch  church  gave  him  at  his 
departure  a  testimony  of  their  appreciation  of  his  ser- 
vices. They  declare  him  to  be  a  man  of  ''  acknowledged 
orthodoxy  and  exemplary  character  who,  according  to 
his  ability,  has  faithfully  and  zealously  performed  the 
duties  of  his  charge. "^^ 

He  was  far  from  being  inactive  as  a  missionar^^  in 
the  destitute  parts  of  the  county.  At  Allentown  he 
preached,  in  his  earlier  ministry  with  the  Freehold 
church,  and  wrote  to  Mather  of  meeting  there  with 
a  cold  reception.  Later,  in  1721,  he  writes  more  cheer- 
fully of  the  changed  attitude  of  that  communit}-  toward 
Presbyterian  ministers.  In  1722,  a  church  having  been 
built  at  Allentown,  Morgan  was  instrumental  in  securing 
Rev.    Mr.    Walton,   a   Yale  graduate,   as   its  minister.'^^ 

At  Middletown,  also,  Mr.  Morgan  preached  in  a  build- 
ing which,  even  in  his  day,  was  dilapidated  and  left  to 
decay.  Its  neglected  condition  annoyed  him,  and  when 
riding  b^^  if  he  saw  the  door  or  window  open,  he  would 


38  THE    "  OLD    SCOTS  "    CHliRCH. 

Stop,  and  dismounting  his  horse,  reverent!}-  close  the 
open  door  or  window  before  proceeding  on  his  way''° 

At  Shrewsbury  also  was  a  Presbyterian  house  of 
worship  for  his  services  in  1727.''' 

The  dissatisfaction  with  his  niinistr}-  followed  him  to 
his  field  of  Hopewell  and  Maidenhead,  resulting  in  the 
further  charges  already  mentioned.  The  secret  of  his 
failure,  with  its  salutary  lesson  may  be  learned  from  his 
own  words  "  While  free  from  worldly  avocations,  the 
work  of  grace  went  on  abundantly,  and  people  came 
from  every  quarter  to  receive  spiritual  consolation.  It 
would  even  melt  one's  heart  to  see  the  humiliation,  self- 
abasement,  and  self-loathing,  that  appeared  in  them  ; 
and  then  fleeing  to  the  blood  of  Christ  for  relief,  and  to 
the  free  grace  and  good  pleasure  of  God,  to  draw  them 
to  Christ,  and  to  see  the  change  wrought  in  their  lovely 
souls."  But,  he  continues,  "'  when  from  necessity  he 
[the  minister]  entangles  himself  in  the  affairs  of  this 
life  the  scene  was  mournfully  changed."*"'^  Poor  Morgan 
with  his  strange  vagaries,  and  noble  ideas,  and  moments 
of  fervor,  and  times  of  temptation  and  abasement,  a  sweet 
but  sad  character,  lovable  and  pitiable,  as  well. 

Beautiful,  and  true  we  trust,  is  the  tradition  concern- 
ing his  later  days ;  that  under  the  fiery  impulse  of 
Whitefield's  eloquence,  the  spirit  of  Evangelism  seized 
him  in  the  rapture  of  a  noble  effort,  and  he  traversed 
the  sea  coasts  of  New  Jersey,  proclaiming  the  Gospel  in 
desolate  places  ;  and  dying  in  the  ardor  of  his  aftermath, 
rests  in  an  unknown  sfrave.''^ 


if. 


CHAPTER  VI. 


REW  JOHN   TENNENT. 
His  Early  Life,  Conversion ,   Training,  Licensure.     Condition  of  The  Eree- 
hold  Church.       Walter  Kcr's  Effort.      The  Ordination.     His  Ministry 
and  Success.     His  Death.     His  Tombstone.     Hts  Writings.     Summary 
of  His  Life. 

From  the  scenes  of  discord  and  contention  in  tlie  later 
3^ears  of  the  unfrnitfnl  ministry  of  Morgan,  it  is  with  a 
sense  of  glad  relief  that  we  tnrn  to  the  character  and 
labor  of  the  succeeding  pastor,  the  Rev.  John  Tennent, 
who  in  the  short  period  of  his  service  with  the  church 
effected  a  spiritual  work  which  was  not  onl}^  one  of  deep 
and  lasting  benefit  to  the  congregation  of  Freehold,  but 
was  the  harbinger  and  first  fruits  of  the  wonderful  era 
of  "  The  Great  Awakening." 

Rev.  John  Tennent  was  the  third  son  of  Rev.  William 
Tennent,  the  founder  of  the  "  Log  College,"  and  the 
younger  brother  of  Rev.  Gilbert  Tennent  and  Rev. 
William  Tennent,  jr.;  the  latter  succeeding  him  in  the 
ministry  at  Freehold.  He  was  born  in  county  Armagh, 
Ireland,  November  12th,  1707,  the  year  after  his  father 
had  been  ordained  to  the  priesthood  of  the  Established 
Church  by  the  Bishop  of  Down.^*  In  his  eleventh  3^ear 
he  came  with  his  father  and  brothers  to  America,  his 
oldest  brother,  Gilbert,  being  converted  while  on  ship- 
board. The  same  year,  dissenting  from  the  orders, 
discipline,  and  false  doctrines  connived  at  in  the  Irish 
established  church.  Rev.  Mr.  Tennent,  sr.,  was  re- 
ceived into  membership  by  the  "  Reverend  S3'nod,  held 


40  THE    "old    scots        CHURCH. 

at  Philadelphia,  the  17th  day  of  September.  1718."  Mr. 
Tennent  preached  at  Eastchester,  Bedford,  and  other 
places  in  Westchester  connty,  N.Y.,^^  following  Morgan's 
labors  on  the  same  fields  twenty  years  before,  nntil,  in 
1726,  he  removed  to  the  historic  spot  at  Neshaminy, 
Penn.,  that  will  ever  be  connected  with  his  name  and 
fame.  In  the  rude  "  Log  College,"  the  school  of  the 
prophets  of  the  Revival  days,  he  trained  his  four  sons 
for  the  gospel  ministry,  and  provided  many  other  can- 
didates for  the  sacred  calling  with  such  practical  and 
spiritual  equipment  for  service,  that  the  impress  of  his 
personality,  and  the  work  of  his  pupils  were  dominant 
factors  in  the  Presbyterianism  of  the  succeeding  gener- 
ation. 

Apart  from  his  share  in  the  changes  in  his  father's 
life,  little  is  known  of  the  early  days  of  John  Tennent. 
An  account  of  his  conversion,  which  occurred  in  his 
youth,  was  published  after  his  death  by  his  brother  Gil- 
bert. His  convictions  were  exceedingly  deep  and  pun- 
gent,being  terrible  for  the  space  of  four  days  and  nights, 
after  which,  being  enabled  to  embrace  Christ,  his  jo^^s 
and  consolations  were  as  remarkable,  as  had  been  his 
anguish  and  sorrow  on  account  of  his  sin. 

After  his  education  at  the  "  Log  College,"  he  was 
licensed  to  preach  by  the  Presbytery  of  New  Castle, 
September,  i8th,  1729,  subscribing  to  the  following 
declaration: 

"I  do  own  the  Westminster  Confession  of  Faith,  before  God  and  these 
witnesses,  together  with  the  Larger  and  Shorter  Catechisms,  with  the  Direc- 
tory thereto  annexed,  to  be  the  confession  of  my  faith,  and  rule  of  faith  and 
manners,  according  to  the  word  of  God.  "46 

On  the  following  day,  the  Synod  of  Philadelphia 
passed  the  important  "  Adopting  Act,"  approving  the 
Westminster  standards  "  as  being  in  all  the  essential 


REV.    JOHN    TENNENT.  41 

and  necessaiy  articles,  good  forms  of  sound  words  and 
systems  of  Christian  doctrine."  Mr.  John  Tennent 
began  his  work  as  a  preacher  as  a  supply  at  Brand}^- 
wine,  Middletown,  New  Castle,  and  Middle  and  Lower 
Octorara. 

The  Freehold  church,  at  the  time  of  the  retirement  of 
Rev.  Joseph  Morgan,  was  in  a  deplorable  condition.  In 
a  letter  to  Rev.  Thomas  Prince,  of  Boston,  dated  Oct. 
nth,  1744,  William  Tennent,  jr.,  drew  the  following 
picture  of  the  state  of  the  church:  "  The  major  part  of 
the  congregation  could  not  be  said  to  have  so  much  as  a 
name  to  live.  Family  prayer  was  unpractised  by  all,  a 
very  few  excepted.  Ignorance  so  overshadowed  their 
minds,  that  the  doctrine  of  the  new  birth,  when  clearly 
explained  and  powerfull}^  pressed  upon  them,  as  abso- 
lutely necessary  to  salvation  [by  that  faithful  preacher 
of  God's  word,  Mr.  Theodorus  Jacobus  Frelinghuysen, 
a  low  Dutch  minister,  and  some  other  English  ministers, 
who  were  occasionally  here]  was  made  a  common  game 
of,  so  that  not  only  the  preachers  but  professors  of  that 
truth  were  called,  in  derision,  "  New  born,"  and  looked 
upon  as  holders  forth  of  some  new  and  false  doctrine  ; 
and  indeed  their  practice  was  as  bad  as  their  principles, 
viz. :  ''  loose  and  profane.""*^  This  statement,  with  its 
careful  exclusion  of  reference  to  Mr.  Morgan  and  his 
preaching,  gives  a  painful  view  of  the  result  of  his  min- 
istry. Coldness  and  unfruitfulness  were  however  by  no 
means  qualities  peculiar  to  the  Freehold  church  in  that 
period.  It  was  a  generation  of  skepticism,  of  formalism 
and  of  ecclesiastical  controversies.  Morgan's  preaching 
and  ministr}^  was  but  the  reflection  of  the  condition  of 
the  church  throughout  the  colonies  and  in  Great  Brit- 


42  THE    "  OLD    SCOTvS  "    CHURCH. 

Mr.  Teiineiit  further  said  to  Mr.  Prince,  "  In  this 
miserable,  hojDeless,  and  helpless  condition  the^^  lay, 
and  few  among  them  had  either  eyes  to  see  or  hearts  to 
bewail  their  woful  and  wretched  circumstances."  A 
statement  probablj^  sufEcientl}-  strong  to  cover  the  facts. 
He  adds,  significantly  that  the  people  "  were  so  divided 
among  themselves,  that  it  appeared  improbable  they 
would  ever  agree  in  the  settlement  of  another  Pastor." 
The  dry,  bookish,  controversial  essays  of  Morgan,  on 
Predestination,  or  Baptism,  watli  possibly  veiled  allu- 
sions to  Astrology  or  water  engines,  surely  were  not 
calculated  to  renew  the  hearts  of  his  hearers,  and  would 
also  tend  to  cause  the  division  in  the  congregation 
which  was  intimated  in  the  answer  of  Synod  to  the 
charges  preferred  against  Mr.  Morgan  in  1728.  Other 
indications  of  a  division  among  the  people  may  be  noted 
in  the  application  for  the  granting  of  a  permit,  under 
George  I,  in  1727,  for  the  erection  of  a  new  church 
upon  "  White  Hill,"  which  resulted  in  the  present 
"  Tennent  "  church  building.  The  fact  that  the  deed 
for  the  possession  of  the  "  Old  Scots  "  ground  was 
obtained  in  this  same  j-ear,  1727,  would  seem  to  show 
the  existence  of  two  parties,  one  favoring  the  retention 
of  the  church  at  the  former  site,  the  other,  the  firmer 
Scotch  party,  headed  by  Ker,  Craig  and  Rhea,  proposing 
to  remove  to  the  western  position,  about  which  man}-  of 
the  sturdiest  Scotch  settlers  had  already  clustered  in 
their  plantations. 

At  this  critical  time  in  the  church's  history,  dis- 
tressed at  the  contentions  and  seeking  a  pastor  who 
might  heal  them,  Walter  Ker  left  his  farm  in  the  midst 
of  harvest,  and  journeyed  to  Neshamiu}^,  to  endeavor  to 
persuade  Mr.  John  Tennent  to  return  with  him  imme- 


RF.V.    JOHN    TENNENT.  43 

diatel}^  and  take  charge  of  the  congregation.  At  first 
Mr.  Tennent  positively  refused  even  to  visit  Freehold. 
Mr.  Ker,  leaving  him  with  sadness,  told  him  with  much 
solemnit}',  that  he  felt  sure  Mr.  Tennent  would  soon 
come  to  a  very  different  conclusion.  Scarcely  had  Mr. 
Ker  left  when  Mr.  Tennent  sent  after  him,  saying  he 
would  come.  It  is  said  that  the  congregation,  inter- 
ested in  Mr.  Ker's  mission,  gathered  in  his  crops  for 
him,  and  the  following  year,  amid  wide-spread  blasting 
and  loss,  Ker  was  able  to  provide  seed  for  many  who 
were  destitute. 

Even  after  Mr.  Tennent  had  made  this  promise 
he  expressed  to  his  brother  William's  great  regret  that 
he  had  consented  even  to  visit  a  people  who  seemed  to 
be  given  up  of  God  for  their  abuse  of  privileges.  On 
his  first  visit  to  Freehold,  probabl}^  in  the  close  of 
the  3^ear  1729,  he  remained  onlj^  four  or  five  Sabbaths, 
but  his  preaching  was  so  blessed  in  awakening  and 
arousing  the  people,  that  on  his  return  home,  he 
told  his  brother  that  he  was  persuaded  Christ  had  a 
large  harvest  of  souls  to  be  gathered  in  Freehold,  and 
that  though  the}^  were  a  poor,  broken,  divided  people, 
yet  if  they  called  him,  he  would  go  though  he  should  be 
obliged  to  beg  his  bread. ^^ 

The  earliest  records  of  the  Tennent  church  now 
extant  are  minutes  of  congregational  actions  in  the 
3^ear  1730.  After  agreeing  as  to  site  of  the  new  meet- 
ing house,  it  is  voted  "  also  that  the  Revd.  Mr.  John 
Tennent  year  Begin  the  15th  day  of  April  last  past, 
viz.,  1730." 

Seven  months  later  Mr.  Tennent  was  ordained  as 
may  be  seen  from  the  following  extract  from  the  records 
of  the  Tennent  church. 


44  THE    "  OLD    SCOTS  "    CHURCH. 

"  A  true  copy  by  me,  John  Henderson,  Clerk,  Tuesday,  November  19th, 
1730.  There  the  Presbytry,  or  a  committee  of  the  same,  met  at  the  Scots 
Meeting  house,  and^fter  fasting  and  prayer,  and  strict  examination  and  full 
approbation,  Did  ordain  the  Rev.  Mr.  John  Tennent.  The  Ministerial 
charge  in  [to  ?]  this  congregation,  William  Tennent,  Jonethan  Dickinson, 
Joseph  Morgan  and  Gilbert  Tennent.  The  names  of  the  committee  for  the 
congregation  was  Walter  Kerr,  Robert  Cumming,  John  Henderson,  Robert 
Newell,  Wilson,  George  Walker,  Timothy  Lloyde  and  Charles  Gor- 
don. "50 

The  ministry  of  John  Tennent  was  attended  from  the 
first  with  extraordinary  tokens  of  divine  power.  "  The 
place  of  worship,"  wrote  his  brother  William  to  Mr. 
Prince,  "  was  nsually  crowded  with  people  of  all  ranks 
and  orders,  as  well  as  professions,  and  they  seemed  to 
hear  generally  as  for  their  lives.  A  solemn  awe  of 
God's  majesty  possessed  many  so  that  they  behaved 
themselves  as  at  his  bar,  while  in  his  honse.  Many 
tears  were  nsually  shed  when  he  preached,  and  some- 
times the  body  of  the  congregation  was  moved  and 
affected.  I  can  say,  and  let  the  Lord  alone  have  the 
glory  of  it,  that  I  have  seen  both  minister  and  people 
wet  with  their  tears  as  with  a  bedewing  rain.  It  was  no 
uncommon  thing  to  see  persons,  in  the  time  of  hearing, 
sobbing  as  if  their  hearts  would  break,  but  without  any 
public  outcr}^ ;  and  some  have  been  carried  out  of  the 
assembly,  [being  overcome]    as  if  they  had  been  dead." 

This  brief  and  brilliant  ministry  of  John  Tennent  at 
Freehold  was  as  the  morning  star  of  the  dawning 
spiritual  light  that  was  now  to  spread  throughout  the 
church  of  America  and  England.  While  he  was  preach- 
ing with  such  intensity  of  awakening  power,  Whitefield 
was  a  lad  in  his  mother's  tavern  at  Gloucester  and 
the  "  Holy  Club  "  at  Oxford  was  just  being  formed. 
Edwards  did  not  until  five  j^ears  later  see  the  effect  of 
his  tremendous  proclamations  upon  the  awe-struck  audi- 


1 


The  Pulpit  of  the  Tennent  Church,  from  which  the  Tennents,  Whitefield, 

Brainerd,    and   Woodhull    Preached.      In    the    vSquare   Enclosure 

Before  the  Pulpit  Brainerd's  Indian  Converts  Communed. 


REV.    JOHN    TENNENT.  45 

ences  at  Northampton,  and  not  nntil  seven  3^ears  after 
John  Tennent's  death  did  John  Wesle^^  follow  White- 
field's  bold  lead  in  the  practice  of  the  open-air  preaching 
which  was  the  actual  beginning  of  the  English  revivals. 
'"  The  earliest  manifestation  of  the  presence  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  in  our  portion  of  the  church,  during  this  period, 
was  at  Freehold,  N.  J.,  under  the  ministr}^  of  the  Rev. 
John  Tennent."'' 

Under  the  ardor  of  his  intense  and  emotional  labors 
his  strength  was  quicklj^  exhausted,  and  within  one 
year  from  the  time  of  his  ordination  he  was  unable 
longer  to  proclaim  the  message  of  the  gospel  to  which 
he  devoted  all  the  energy  of  his  enthusiastic  and  conse- 
crated life.  Calling  for  his  brother  William's  assistance 
in  the  work  among  a  congregation  which  was  rapidly 
increasing  and  needing  most  constant  oversight,  John 
Tennent  lingered  through  the  winter  of  1730-31,  in  a 
state  of  happiness  and  peace,  which  turned  into  glowing 
ecstac}^  before  his  death.  ''  A  few  moments  before  he 
expired,"  said  his  brother  Gilbert,  ''  he  broke  out  in  the 
following  rapturous  expressions:  '  Farewell  my  brother 
— farewell  father  and  mother — farewell  world,  with  all 
th}^  vain  delights — welcome  God  of  father — welcome 
sweet  Lord  Jesus — welcome  death,  welcome  eternity — 
Amen.'  In  a  low  voice  he  added,  '  Lord  Jesus,  come 
Lord  Jesus,'  and  so  he  fell  asleep  in  Christ." 

In  the  Tennent  church  record  is  this  simple  and 
affecting  statement: 

"  Lord's  day,  April  23,  1732.  The  Revd.  &  Dear  Mr.  John  Tennent  De- 
parted this  Life  between  8  &  9  of  the  clock  in  The  morning,  and  was  Bnrried 
on  The  Tuesday  following,  a  mournful  Providence  &  cause  of  great  Humil- 
ity To  This  poor  congregation.  To  be  bereaved  of  the  flour  of  youth,  The 
most  Laborious,  successful,  well  qualifide  Pastor  This  age  aforeded,  Tho  but 
a  youth  of  24  years,  5  months  &  ri  days  of  age." 


46  THE    "old    vSCOTS  "    CHURCH. 

His  remains  lie  in  the  "  Old  Scots  "  graveyard,  about 
eight  paces  southwest  of  John  Boyd's  stone.  A  sand- 
stone tablet,  some  six  feet  by  three,  in  a  perfect  state  of 
preservation,  lies  flat  above  the  grave,  sinking  already 
in  the  yielding  turf.  Upon  it  is  an  inscription  pre- 
pared, it  is  said,  by  Jonathan  Dickinson;  and  though 
there  be  little  poetic  merit  in  the  epitaph,  it  shows  the 
estimate  placed  on  Mr.  Tennent  by  one  of  the  leading- 
men  of  the  age  in  which  he  lived.  The  inscription  is 
as  follows: 

Here  l^es  what  was  mortal  of 

T 
the  Revrd,  Mr.  JOHN  TENNEN 

r 
Nat,  Nou.    12.  1707  Obijt  April  23 

1732 

Who  quick  grew  old  in  Learning  Vertue  Grace 

s 
Quick  finish' d  well  yielded  to  Death   Embrace 

Whose  mouldred  Dust  this  Cal)inet  contains 

gns 
Whose  soul  triumphant  with  liright  Seraph  rei 

s         ht 
Waiting  the  time  all  Heaven  brig    Concave  flame 

i 
And  y  last  Trump  repairs  this  rund  Frame 

ur  m 

Cur  praematuram  mortemque  queram  acerba 

s 
Mor  matura  venit  cum  bona  Vita  fuit. 

The  only  productions  we  have  from  the  pen  of  John 
Tennent  are  the  two  sermons  published  in  London  b}^ 
his  brother  Gilbert  "with  an  explanatory^  Address  to 
Saints  and  Sinners."  The  sermons  are  on  "  The  Nature 
of  Regeneration  opened  and  its  absolute  Necessity  in 
order  to  Salvation  demonstrated,"  and  on  "  The  Nature 
of  Adoption  with  its  consequent  Privileges  explained." 

"  From  these  sermons  and  from  the  testimon}^  of  both 
his  brothers,  Gilbert  and  William,  and  from  the  accounts 


REV.    JOHN    TENNENT.  47 

which  have  come  down  to  us,  and  especially  from  the 
extraordinary  success  which  attended  his  brief  ministry, 
we  have  every  reason  to  conclude,  that  in  piety,  talents, 
and  preaching  ability,  he  was  quite  equal  to  either  of 
his  brothers,  and  probably,  as  a  preacher,  superior  to 
either  of  them  ;  and  had  he  lived  would  probably  have 
surpassed  either  of  them  in  his  usefulness  to  the  Church 
of  God.  According  to  tradition  his  zeal  was  ardent,  his 
style  beautiful,  with  a  remarkable  fluency  of  expression, 
and  luxuriance  and  aptness  of  illustration,  while  a 
peculiar  tenderness,  compassion,  and  pathos,  breathed 
in  all  he  said,  even  while  denouncing  the  terrors  of  the 
law  against  the  secure  and  impenitent.  The  people  of 
his  charge  were  greatly  attached  to  him,  and  deeply 
mourned  and  lamented  his  death  ;  and  his  memory  is 
even  yet  fragrant  in  Freehold,  among  the  descendants 
of  those  who  sat  under  his  ministry." 


CHAPTER  VII. 


THE  RE.MOl'AL   OF  THE  CHURCH. 
Reasons  for  the  Removal.    Fear  of  Division.    Change  in  Location  of  Settlers. 
Decay  of  The  ''Old  Scots''  Meeting-House.        William    Tennent,  fr. 
fohn  U'oodhiill,  D.  D.      Walter  Ker' s  Grave. 

The  first  motion  looking  to  the  removal  of  the  chnrch 
was  the  permit  from  the  Crown  for  the  proposed  building, 
obtained  in  1727.^^  In  1728,  on  some  unknown  charge 
against  Mr.  Morgan,  Synod  finds  his  accusers  have  "  no 
just  ground  for  separation."  In  1730,  on  July  20th, the 
elders,  Walter  Ker  and  John  Hutton,^^  with  their  "  helps  " 
who  are  "  to  represent  the  congregation,"  Charles  Gor- 
don, Timothy  Lloyde,  Jonithan  Forman,  Robert  Cum- 
ming,  and  John  Henderson,^'*  met  and  ''  agreed  to  build 
a  meeting-House  between  Wm.  Ker's  Barrs  and  Rockey 
Hill  Bridge." 

Three  reasons  for  this  new  building  ma}^  be  deduced 
from  the  records.  First,  there  was  clearly  an  apprehen- 
sion of  a  division  in  the  congregation,  and  the  consistent, 
Scotch  element  in  the  church,  led  by  Walter  Ker,  who 
had  always  been  out  of  sympathy  with  Mr.  Morgan, 
wished  to  prepare  for  the  possible  separation,  by  pro- 
viding a  place  for  the  accomodation  of  the  large  portion 
who  were  disaffected  at  the  close  of  Mr.  Morgan's  minis- 
try. Second,  there  appears  to  have  been  a  change  in 
the  location  of  many  of  the  Presbyterian  settlers  in  the 
early  years  of  the  century.  The  strongest  supporters 
of  the  church  were  on  plantations  several   miles  west  of 


OQ 


THE  REMOVAL  OF  THE  CHURCH.         49 

the  "  Old  Church  ;  "  the  newer  Scotch  element,  coming 
over  in  the  time  of  the  Jacobite  troubles  of  1715,  found 
the  eastern  portion  of  the  count}^  already  pre-empted, 
and  went  where  Proprietor's  land  could  be  obtained  ;  the 
Dutch  had  also  entrenched  themselves  gregariously 
about  the  former  site.  Thirdly,  the  earlier  building 
had  evidently  been  of  such  a  rude  and  temporary  char- 
acter, that  there  was  need  of  a  new  church,  on  the  old 
site  or  elsewhere.  A  fortnight  after  the  above-mentioned 
meeting  of  the  representatives  of  the  church,  they 
agreed  "  that  the  Old  or  lower  meeting-House  To  be 
repaired  with  all  Haste  that  can  be.  " 

Managers,  or  "  undertakers,"  in  building  the  new 
church  were  appointed  in  August,  1730,  between  the 
call  and  the  ordination  of  John  Tennent.  The  new 
church  "is  to  be  made  Forty  feet  long  and  Thirty  feet 
wide,  and  each  of  the  Builders  is  to  have  one  seat  in  it 
above  their  common  Due." 

The  work  which  was  to  be  pushed  "  with  all  the  speed 
possible  after  this  sowing  time  was  over,"  was  successful- 
1}^  advanced  in  the  wnnter,  and  on  "  April  iSth,  1731,  was 
The  first  Time  that  there  was  servise  in  the  new  meet- 
ing-House on  White  Hill."  On  the  same  day  Margaret, 
daughter  of  William  Ker  was  baptized,  "  the  first  Bap- 
tized in  the  new  Meeting  House." 

A  tradition  has  been  handed  down  that  it  was 
planned  by  the  "  undertakers  "  to  locate  the  church 
upon  a  site  lower  than  its  present  situation,  and 
that  old  Janet  Rhea,^^  one  of  the  Scotch  Covenanters, 
seized  the  small  corner-stone  in  her  apron,  and  toiling 
to  the  top  of  the  hill,  set  it  upon  the  summit,  saying  to 
the  astonished  builders,  "  Wha  ever  heard  o'  ganging 
doon   to  the  Hoose  o'  the  Lord,  an  no  o'  ganging  oop  to 


50  THE        OLD    SCOTS        CHURCH. 

the  Hoose  o'  the  Lord?  "  A  fine  mixture  of  aspiration 
and  scripture  literalness,  characteristic  of  Covenanter 
stock.  The  agreement  was  made  in  1730,  "  That  the 
services  be  one  Sabbath  at  the  upper  Meeting  House, 
and  so  to  continue  successively,"  which  apparent!}' 
meant  alternate  services  at  the  "  Scots  "  church  and  the 
''Tennent"  church.  i\bout  the  year  1733,  under  the 
ministry  of  Rev.  William  Tennent,  jr.,  services  were 
held  for  two  Sabbaths  in  the  new  church,  and  one  in  the 
old  church.  In  course  of  time,  from  the  decay  of  the 
slight  structure  reared  in  the  first  days  of  the  new 
settlement,  and  from  the  superior  accommodations  and 
more  convenient  situation  of  the  newer  church,  the  "  Old 
Scots  Meeting-House, "'"  on  Free  Hill,  crumbled,  fell 
and  passed  into  oblivion  so  utterly,  that  no  tradition 
remains  of  its  size,  appearance,  or  appurtenances. 

Concerning  the  famed  ministry  of  Rev.  William  Ten- 
nent, jr.,  in  the  church  and  community  that  bears  his' 
name  and  cherishes  his  memory,  little  may  properly  be 
said  within  the  limits  of  the  present  subject.  His  en- 
erg}^  and  apostolic  zeal,  his  shrewdness,  wit,  and  conse- 
crated sense,  his  prodigious  labors,  and  the  accounts, 
well-nigh  miraculous,  of  supernatural  acts  and  scenes, 
are  treasured  thoughts  and  household  tales  in  the  broad 
region  where  he  toiled  with  such  success. 

His  body  was  buried  in  the  central  aisle  of  the  church 
whose  walls  rang  so  often  with  the  ardor  of  his  elo- 
quence. Before  his  year-old  grave,  Washington  rallied 
the  retreating  Continental  troops,  upon  that  heated  Sab- 
bath day,  in  June,  1778,  when  brazen  cannon  lips  thun- 
dered from  Tennent  heights  the  stern  message  of 
Liberty  ;  and  the  dark  menace  of  invasion  rolled  back 
from  the  little  church  front,  where  Strength  and  Con- 


THE  REMOVAL  OF  THE  CHURCH.         5 1 

science,  Valor  and  Religion  joined  to  repel  the  foe  from 
Monmontli  field. 

Rev.  John  Woodhull,  D.  D.,  followed  with  an  illus- 
trious ministry  of  forty-five  years,  exerting  a  wide  and 
benignant  influence.  Boyd^  the  Tennents,  and  Wood- 
hull,  four  of  the  first  five  ministers,  died  while  in  their 
service  with  the  church  of  Freehold. 

Some  half  a  mile  eastward  of  the  Tennent  church, 
upon  a  thickly  wooded  hill,  overgrown  with  tangled 
briars,  that  clamber  over  fallen  trunks,  on  a  point  that 
looks  out  toward  the  white  church  he  loved  and  toiled 
for  through  long  j^ears,  lies  the  body  of  that  man  of  God, 
Walter  Ker.  His  tombstone  is  of  firm-grained  sand- 
stone, with  clear-cut  inscription  that  reads  as  follows: 

Here  lies  what's  Mortal  of  Walter  Ker 

e 
Deceased  June  loth  1748  in  y  92  year  of  his  age 

Who  long  with  Patience  Bore  life's  heavy  load 

Willing  to  spend  and  be  spent  for  God 

the  noble  Portrait  in  a  line  to  paint 

he  Breath'd,  a  Father  liv'd,'  &.  Dy'd  a  saint 

Here  sleeps  in  peace  the  aged  sire's  dust 

Till  the  glad  Trump  arouse  the  sleeping  just. 

Beside  him  lies  his  wife,  who  had  died  fourteen  years 
before.  Above  the  little  plot  stands  a  massive  oak  with 
wide,  strong  branches  which  have  resisted  many  a  win- 
tr}^  shock,  whose  iron  strength,  deep  rooted  in  the  soil 
beneath,  and  loftv  in  its  grand,  uplifted  limbs,  seems  as 
a  type  of  that  noble  Covenanter's  soul,  who,  after  suffer- 
ing imprisonment  for  conscience  sake,  banished  across 
the  sea,  pra^^ed  and  toiled  and  sacrificed,  through  three 
score  years,  for  the  Church  of  the  Eternal  Covenant  of 
God.  Beside  the  oak  stands  a  strong  and  graceful 
chestnut  tree,  and  the  two,  with  branches  intertwined, 
are  symbols  of  those  true  and  upright  lives,  rooted  in 
the  certaint}'  of  the  promises  of  God,  and  sublime  in  the 


52  THE        OLD    SCOTS        CHURCH.      . 

aspirations  for  the  heavenl}'-  life.  Down  below  the  emi- 
nence where  the  trees  are  shading  the  ancient  graves, 
rolls  a  fertile  field  and  on  its  grassy  sward,  nnder  fruit- 
laden  branches,  graze  flocks  of  sheep  and  herds  of 
placid  cattle. 

From  the  rugged  grandeur  of  those  stern,  strong. 
God-fearing  lives  of  the  troublous  past,  descend  to  our 
more  peaceful  days  the  inspiration  of  noble  inheritance, 
and  the  treasured  memories  of  the  lineage  of  God's  elect. 

"  Peace  to  the  Church,  her  peace  no  foes  invade  ; 
Peace  to  each  noble  martyr's  noble  shade, 
They  with  undaunted  courage,  truth,  and  zeal, 
Contended  for  the  Church  and  Country's  weal. 
We  share  the  fruits,  we  drop  the  grateful  tear, 
And  peaceful  altars  o'er  their  ashes  rear." 


FINIS. 


APPENDIX. 


1.  Mari^aret  Wilson  was  but  eighteen  years  of  age.  Her  epitaph  in  the 
church  yard  at  Wigton  reads: 

"Murdered  for  owning  Christ  supreme 
Head  of  his  church,  and  no  more  crime, 
But  her  not  owning  Prelacy, 
And  not  abjuring  Presbyter}^, 
Within  the  sea,  tied  to  a  stake, 
She  suffered  for  Christ  Jesus'  sake." 

[See  Macaulay,  Hist,  of  England  i.  379.] 

2.  The  list  is  given  in  W.  A.  Whitehead's  Contributions  to  the  Early 
History  of  Perth  Ambo)',  etc.,  p.  22.  In  this  list  we  find  the  name  of  John 
Craige,  pro!:)abl3-  he  who  in  1705  headed  the  number  of  those  who  applied  to 
the  Monmouth  county  court  to  have  the  Presbyterian  meeting  house  on 
I'refhill  recorded;  of  Archibald  Craige,  who  was  his  son,  and  who  with  two 
children  lies  buried  in  the  "Old  Scots"  ground;  of  John  Boyd  perhaps  some 
connection  of  the  John  Boyd,  who  21  years  later  was  minister  of  the  church 
at  Freehold. 

3.  In  1684,  Gawen  Lawrie,  Deputy  Governor  of  East  Jersey,  wrote  "The 
Scots  and  William  Dockwra's  people  coming  now  and  settling  advanced  the 
Province  more  than  it  hath  been  advanced  these  ten  years."  Again  he 
writes:  "The  Scots  have  taken  a  right  course.  They  have  sent  over  many 
.servants  and  are  likewise  sending  more.  They  have  likewise  sent  over 
many  poor  families  and  given  them  a  .small  stock."  William  Dockwra  was 
a  London  merchant,  inventor  of  the  Penny  Post.  He  was  .said  to  be  in  1688 
"the  best  land  stead  in  the  Province."  [See  N.  J.  Archives  11.  27.]  John 
Reid,  who  became  Surveyor  General  of  the  Province,  and  of  His  Majesty's 
council,  came  in  1683  in  charge  of  one  of  Barclaj's  expeditions.  He  was  a 
Quaker,  turning  in  1702  to  the  English  church  under  Keith's  influence.  He 
lies  buried  about  two  miles  from  the  "Old  Scots"  ground,  in  Topanemus 
graveyard.      [See  Ellis'  History  of  Monmouth  County  p.  79.] 

4.  The  "Caledonia"  has  been  the  centre  of  much  romance,  and  possibl}' 
some  nnthology,  voiced  in  the  expression  of  an  old  negro  woman  of  Perth 
Ambo}',  "that  Ham  and  Columbo  came  over  in  the  old  Caledonia.  A  ship 
of  that  name  was  one  of  the  five  of  the  unfortunate  Scotch  expedition  to 
Darien  in  1698,  and  one  of  the  three  that  came  after  the  disastrous  termina- 
tion of  the  venture,  to  New  York  in  the  autumn  of  1699. 

Macaulav',  [v:[77]  says:  "The  Caledonia,  the  healthiest  ship  of 
the  three,  threw  overboard  a  hundred  corpses."  It  is  known  that  one  of  her 
sister  ships  from  Darien,  the  "Unicorn,"  came  to  Ambo}',  under  the  com- 
mand of  John  Anderson,  a  "Scotch  Presbj'terian,"  [See  N.  J.  Archives,  vol 
iv.,  pp.  156,  178]  who  lies  buried  at  Topanemus,  two  miles  from  the  "Old 
Scots"  ground.  Whitehead,  [Contribution  to  History  of  Perth  Amboy,  etc. 
pp.  265,  266]  sa^s  that  the  "Caledonia"  brought  over  many  Scotch  families 
in  1 7 15,  and  that  the  remains  of  the  vessel  could  be  seen  in  recent  years  in 
shoal  water  off  Amboy.  It  is  said  that  in  the  latter  part  of  the  last  century 
the  broken  ma.st  of  the  vessel  was  a  familiar  sight.  Canes  and  other  articles 
made  from  her  timbers  are  still  preserved. 


11  THE        OLD    SCOTS        CHURCH. 

5.  Walter  Ker  came  from  the  Parish  of  Dalsert,  Lanarkshire,  and  was 
banished  two  days  before  Pitlochie's  expedition  sailed  through  the  influence 
of  the  curate  of  the^Parish,  Joseph  Clelland. 

William  Tennent,  Jr. ,  in  1744,  wrote  concerning  Freehold:  "The  settling  of 
that  place  with  a  gospel  ministry,  was  owing,  under  God,  to  the  agency  of 
some  vScotch  people,  that  came  to  it,  among  whom  there  was  none  so  pains- 
taking in  this  blessed  work  as  one  Walter  Ker,  who,  in  1685,  for  his  faithful 
and  conscientious  adherence  to  God  and  his  truth  as  professed  by  the  church 
of  Scotland,  was  there  apprehended  and  sent  to  this  country,  under  a  sen- 
tence of  perpetual  banishment.  By  which  it  appears  that  the  devil  ai.d  his 
instruments  lost  their  aim  in  sending  him  from  home,  where  it  is  unlikely  he 
could  ever  have  been  so  serviceable  to  Christ's  kingdom  as  he  has  been  here 
He  is  yet  [1744]  alive;  and,  blessed  be  God,  flourishing  in  his  old  age,  being 
in  his  88th  year."      [See  Hodge's  History,  part  ii.,  p.  20.] 

Salter's  History  of  Monmouth  and  Ocean  counties,  [Appendix, page  1  xxvii,] 
states  he  was  banished  .Sept.  3,  1685,  was  probably  on  the  "Henry  and  Fran- 
cis;" he  had  sons,  Joseph  and  James,  (perhaps  William  and  Samuel  also,  who 
were  deacons  in  the  church  in  1746).  Walter  Ker,  with  his  wife,  Margaret, 
and  his  son  Joseph's  wife,  Margaret,  lies  buried  about  half  a  mile  east  of  the 
present  "Old  Tennent"  church. 

Concerning  one  Walter  Ker,  the  "sweet  singer"  of  i6Sr.  who  can  hardly 
have  been  the  same,  [see  Wodrow,  iii.,  pp.  348,353,  and  Whitehead,  Contri- 
butions, etc.  pp.  38,  40.] 

6.  [See  Ellis'  History  of  Monmouth  County,  p.  830]: — On  a  farm  near 
Matawaii  is  a  broken  and  defaced  stoue  partly  illegible,  bearing  the  words 
"Here  lies  interred  the  Body, ""William  Robertson, ""Great  Britian"  and  the 
date  1682.  Tradition  says  "he  came  from  Scotland  in  the  famous  prison 
ship  and  that  it  was  he  who  named  the  place  New  Aberdeen." 

7.  Lewis  Morris'  letter  to  the  Bishop  of  London  in  1700  says:  "Freehold 
was  settled  from  Scotland  [Mr.  Keith  began  the  first  settlement  there,  and 
owned  a  fine  plantation,  which  he  afterwards  sold,  and  went  into  Pennsyl- 
vania.] About  one  half  of  the  inhabitants  there  are  Scotch  Presbyterians, 
and  a  sober  people.  The  other  part  was  settled  by  people  [some  from  New 
England,  some  from  New  York,  and  some  from  the  formentioned  towns,] 
who  are,  generally  speaking,  of  no  religion.  There  is  in  this  town  a  Quak- 
er Meeting  House."  By  this  Morris  means  Topanemus  which  w'as  afterwards 
moved  to  Freehold  village,  constituting  part  of  the  present  edifice  of  St. 
Peter's  church.  It  is  to  be  noted  that  Morris  does  not  mention  the  existence 
in  1700  of  a  Scotch  Meeting  House  at  Freehold.  This  is  no  proof  of  its  non- 
existence at  that  date,  however,  as  Morris  also  ignores  the  Baptist  Meeting 
house  at  Middletown,  which  had  undoubtedly  been  built  some  twelve  years 
before.     [See  "Old  Times  in  Old  Monmouth,"  p.  264.] 

8.  The  ground  lies  seven-eighths  of  a  mile  west  of  the  track  of  the  Free- 
hold and  Atlantic  Highlands  Branch  of  the  C.  R.  R.  of  N.  J.,  about  equi- 
distant from  Bradevelt  and  Wickatunk  stations,  on  a  straight  road  from  the 
latter.  It  lies  on  the  "John  VanKirk  farm,"  opposite  the  home  of  Mr.  Gide- 
on McDowell,  and  is  about  five  miles  northeast  of  the  "Old  Tennent"  Church, 
its  successor. 

9  These  dimensions  would  make  the  building  larger  than  the  famous  "Log 
College,"  built  over  thirty  years  afterwards,  where  two  of  the  preachers  of 
the  Freehold  Church,  John  and  William  Tennent  were  trained  by  their 
father.     [See  Whitefield's  Life,  by  Gillies,  p.  61.] 

10.     The  eighteen  century  stones  in  the  grave  yard  are  as  follows: 
Rev.  John  Boyd,  died  August  30th,  1708,  aet.  28. 
Michael  Henderson,  and  Jane,  his  wife,  died  1722. 
William  Redford,  born  1642,  died  March  1725-6. 


APPENDIX.  Ill 

William  Craig,  son  of  Archibald,  died  Aug.  8,  1726,  aet  i. 

Margaret  Redford,  wife  of  William,  born  1645,  died  1729. 

Rev.  John  Tennent,  born  Nov.  12  1707,  died  April  23,    1732. 

Richard  Clark,  born  in  Scotland  Feb   loth,  1663,  died  May  16,   1733. 

Elinor,  wife  of  Abraham  VanDorn,  daug.  of  Jonathan  and  Margaret  For- 
man,  died  May  22,  1733,  aet.  20. 

William,  son  of  Jonathan  and  Margaret   Forman,    born    Feb.    20,    1729, 
died  1735. 

Elizabeth,  wife  of  Jeremiah  Reeder,  died  1735,  aet.   79. 

Stevens  Nicholas  Henderson,  grandson  of  Michael  Henderson,  died  Nov. 
27  1737,  9  month  old 

Walter  Wall,  died  Feb.  2,  1737-S,  aet  47. 

William,  son  of  Samuel  Craig,  died  Aug.  23,  1743,  aet.  2. 

Catharine,  wife  of  John  Vanderhiden,    daug.  of  Anthony  and  Elizabeth 
Ward,  died  Jan.  10,  1746,  aet.  33. 

Samuel,  son  of  Archibald  Craig,  died  Nov.  17,   1746,  aet.  38. 

Anthony  Ward,  born  Great  Britain,  died  Dec.  6,  1746,  aet.  76. 

Euphemia  Freeiser,  died  Mar.  i,  1747-8  aet.  21. 

Anne  Henderson,  born  Dec.  27,  1734,  died  June  18,    1748. 

Samuel  Crawford,  died  July  8,  1748,  aet.  35  years,  3  months. 

Jane  Henderson,  born  Oct.   8,  1730,  died  Jan.  4,  1748-9. 

Archibald  Craig,  Esq.,  died  Mar.  6,  1751,  aet.   73. 

Mary,  wife  of  Archibald  Craig,  died  Nov.  i,  1752,  aet.  69. 

Anna,  wife  of  Walter  Wall,  died  Jan.    19,    1758,    aet.    62   and   about   4 
months. 

Jonathan,  son  of  Jonathan  and  Margaret  Forman,   born  Nov,   13,   1722, 
died  May  20,  1758 

William  Crawford,  died  Mar.  22,  1760,  aet.  49. 

Margaret,  daug.  of  John  and  Sarah  O'Harrah,  died  vSep.  3,  1760,  aet.   5. 

John  O'Harrah,  died  Sep.  16,  1760,  aet.  34. 

Hannah,  wife  of  John  Amy,  died  Mar.  23,  1762,  aet.  about  53. 

Jonathan  Forman,  died  Dec.  28,  1762,  aet.  74. 

Margaret,  widow  of  Jonathan  Forman,  born  1693,   died  Dec.  21,  1765. 

John  Henderson,  died  Jan.  i,  1771,  aet.  73. 

Catharine,  wife  of  John  Patten,  died  Feb.  9,  1774,  aet.  52. 

Anne,  wife  of  John  Henderson,  died  Oct.  4,  1776,  aet.  64. 

David  Pease,  died  Oct.  15,  1778,  aet.  58. 
In  several  cases  the  husband  and  wife,  or  the  parent  and  child  or  grand- 
child lie  beneath  the  same  stone. 

11.  The  earliest  date  in  the  existing  records  of  the  Freehold  Church  is 
1730.  Many  of  the  old  records  were  lost  in  the  burning  of  the  parsonage  of 
Rev.  Archibald  Cobb,  pastor  of  the  Tennent  church.  The  accounts  extant 
assume  a  regular  organization  already  existing.  With  their  orderl}^  Scotch 
habits,  the  appointment  of  elders,  or  '  A.ssistants"  was  an  early  act.  In  the 
neighboring  church  of  Woodbridge,  in  i7©7,  1708  "the  foundation  of  the 
church  was  laid  first  upon  three  persons  who  had  been  communicants,  etc." 
[Whitehead's  Contributions,  p.  386.] 

In  "a  sermon  preached  at  Freehold  Nov.  25,  1824,  on  the  death  of  the  Rev. 
John  Woodhull,  D.  D.,  late  pastor  of  the  Presbyterian  church  of  Freehold, 
New  Jersey,  by  the  Rev.  Isaac  N.  Brown"  (p.  25,  note)  it  is  stated.  "This 
congregation  was  regularly  organized  June  3,  1730.  Before  this  it  had  nomi- 
nally existed  a  short  time  and  enjoyed  the  pastoral  labors  of  the  Rev.  Joseph 
Morgan."  An  account  ignoring  John  Boyd  may  not  be  considered  conclu- 
sive. 

12.  In  Scot's  "Model,  etc."  Peter  Watson's  letter  from  E.  Jersey,  of  Aug. 
20,  1684,  says  "We  have  great  need  of  good  and  faithful  ministers,  and  I 
wish  to  God,  that  there  would  some  come  over  here,  they  can  live  as  well 


iv  THE    "  OLD    SCOTS       CHURCH. 

and  have  as  much  as  in  Scotland,  and  more  than  many  get;  we  have  none 
within  all  the  province  of  East  Jersey  except  one  who  is  preacher  in  Newark; 
there  were  one  or  t\\;o  preachers  more  in  the  Province,  but  they  are  dead, and 
now  the  people  they  meet  together  every  Sabbath  day,  and  read  and  pray, 
and  sing  Psalms  in  their  meeting-houses." 

13.  In  the  Monmouth  Patent  of  1665,  religious  toleration  was  provided  for: 
"They  shall  have  free  liberty  of  conscience  without  any  molestation  or  dis- 
turbance whatsoever  in  their  way  of  worship."  But  the  force  and  authority 
of  the  Patent  was  an  uncertain  quantity.  Cornbury's  Instructions  from  the 
Crown  (1702)  provided  for  "Liberty  of  conscience  to  all  persons  except 
Papists."     [N.J.  Archives,  ii.  522.] 

Scot  in  his  "Model"  1684,  says:  "Liberty  in  matters  of  religion  is  estab- 
lished in  the  fullest  manner.  To  be  a  planter  or  inhabitant,  nothing  is  re- 
quired but  the  acknowledging  of  one  .\lmighty  God;  and  to  have  a  share  in 
the  government,  a  simple  profession  of  faith  of  Jesus  Christ  without  descend- 
ing into  any  other  of  the  differences  among  Christians,  only  that  religion 
may  not  be' a  cloak  for  disturbance,  whoever  comes  into  the  magistrature, 
must  declare  they  hold  not  themselves  in  conscience  obliged  for  religion's 
sake  to  make  an  alteration  or  to  endeavor  to  turn  out  their  partners  to  the 
government  because  they  differ  in  opinion  with  them;  and  this  is  no  more 
than  to  follow  the  great  rule,  to  do  as  they  would  be  done  by." 

14.  See  reply  of  Assembly  of  1707  to  Cornbury,  [N.  J.  Archives,  iii.  264] 
"One  minister  of  the  church  of  England,  dragg'd  by  a  sheriff  from  Burling- 
ton to  Amboy,  and  there  kept  in  custody,  without  assigning  any  reason  for 
it,  and  at  last  hauPd  by  force  into  a  boat  by  your  excellency,  and  transport- 
ed like  a  malefactor  into  another  government,  and  there  kept  in  garrison  a 
prisoner;  and  no  reason  assigned  for  these  violent  procedures,  l)ut  your 
excellency's  pleasure.  Another  minister  of  the  Church  of  F^ngland,  laid 
under  a  neces.sity  of  leaving  the  provhice  from  the  reasonable  apprehensions 
of  meeting  the  same  treatment,  etc." 

In  Cornbury's  Instructions  from  the  Crown  he  was  directed  not  "to  prefer 
any  minister  to  an  ecclesiastical  benefice  without  a  certificate  from  the  Right 
Reverend  Father  in  God,  the  Bishop  of  London,  of  his  being  conformable  to 
the  doctrine  and  discipline  of  the  Church  of  England."  He  was  aLso  direct- 
ed to  remove  such  as  give  scandals  by  their  .doctrine  or  morals,  a  dangerous 
power  to  place  in  the  hands  of  a  governor  with  the  doctrines  and  morals  of 
Cornbury.      [See  N.  J.  Archives,  ii.  p.  528.] 

15.  "Court  of  Quarter  Sessions,  held  at  Shrewsbury,   May  2Sth,  1706. 
Whereas,  Mr.  John  Boyd,  Minister  of  ye  Presbyterians  of  Freehold,  made 

application  to  ye  Court  "of  Sessions,  held  last  December,  that  he  might 
be  admitted  to  quolifie  himself,  as  ye  law  directs  in  that  behalf  and  ye 
Court  ordered  that  further  consideration  thereof  should  be  referred.  And 
now  ye  said  John  Boyd  appeared  in  open  .session,  and  was  by  the  court 
permitted  to  qualifie  himself,  and  accordingly  the  said  John  Boyd 
hath  qualified  himself  as  ye  law  in  that  case  directs,  viz:  did 
take  ye  oath  made,  in  a  statute,  made  in  the  first  year  of  their  Ma- 
jesties Reign,  entitled,  "An  act  for  removing  and  preventing  all  (juestions 
and  disputes  concerning  ye  assembling  of  ye  Parliament;  and  did  make  and 
subscribe  ye  declaration  mentioned  in  ye  statute  made  in  ye  30th  year  of  ye 
reign  of  King  Charles  ye  2nd,  intitled,  'An  act  to  prevent  Papists  from  sit- 
ting in  either  house  of  Parliament,'  and  did  also  declare  his  approbation  of, 
and  did  .subscribe  ve  articles  of  religion  mentioned  in  ye  statute  made  in  ye 
30th  year  of  the  Reign  of  ye  late  Queen  Elizabeth  except  ye  34,  35  and  36, 
and  these  words  of  ye  20th  article,  viz:  "The  Church  hath  power  to  decree 
rites  or  ceremonys  and  authority  in  controversies  of  faith  and,  etc' 

All  which  are  entered  here  of  record,  according  to    ye    directions    of  an- 


APPENDIX. 


other  Act  of  Parliament,  entitled,  "An  act  exempting  his  Majesties  Protestant 
subjects,  desenting  from  ye  Church  of  England,  from  the  penalties  of  cer- 
tain laws." 

"  The  Five  Mile  Act  had  banished  him  from  his  dwelling,  from 
his  relations,  from  his  friends,  from  almost  all  places  of  public  resort. 
Under  the  Conventicle  Act  his  goods  had  been  distrained,  and  he  had  been 
flung  into  one  noisome  goal  after  another  among  highwaymen  and  house 
breakers."     Macaulay,  Hist.   ii.  163. 

See  "Proceedings  of  Deputation  to  Protect  civil  rights  of  Dissenters." 
London,  1813,  p.  172. 


IMa-p 

of  tKe  vicinity  of 

The  Old  Scots  avncL  Xenneixt  Cfiurclicj^ 
Scale —'Lmiltr-to  HncK. 


J\Lonm.ou{h     Courvly, 
N&w  cJe»«se 


16.  Rev.  Mr.  Talbot,  of  the  S.  P.  G.,  wrote  to  its  secretary  in  1703,  from 
Philadelphia  [?].  "The  Presb3'terians  here  come  a  great  way  to  lay  hands 
on  one  another,  but  after  all  I  think  they  had  as  good  stay  at  home  for 
all  the  good  they  do."    See  Gillett's  Historj^  of  Presb.   Church,  i,   20.     In 


vi  THE        OLD    SCOTS        CHURCH. 

"The    Presb.    Church   in    Philadelphia."     [Introd.,    p.  xiv.]  it   is  said    that 
Andrews  was  ordained  and  installed  in  1701. 

17.  See  Hodge's  History,  i.  78. 

18.  See  Briggs'  Amer.  Presbyterianism,  pp.  139  note,  140  note,  and  xliv. 
Ten  years  later  twelve  of  the  seventeen  in  the   Presbytery  of  Philadelphia 

were  believed  to  have  been  educated    at    Crlasgow.       See  ' ' Americsn  Presby- 
terianism," App.  p.  Ixxi. 

19.  See  '-Records  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,"  pp.  ii,  12. 

20.  See  History  of  Presb.  Church  of  Trenton,  by  John  Hall,  D.  D.,  p.  35. 
The  Newark  church  was  not  connected  with  Presbytery  till  1716-20.      vSee 

J.  F.  Stearns'  Hist.  First  Church  of  Newark,"  pp.  127,  128. 

21.  A  John  Boyd,  in  Ayrshire,  Scotland,  was  schoolmaster  at  Cowend 
[Wodrow,  iii.  385.]  His  house  was  thrice  robbed  of  all  its  furniture  by  the 
soldiers,  and  he  forced  to  pay  40  pounds  to  Ardmillan  for  failing  to  attend 
the  curate's  services.  He  was  carried  prisoner  to  Edinburgh  in  1682  where 
he  lay  three  months  in  close  confinement,  and  before  he  was  liberated,  paid 
upwards  of  100  pounds,  Scots,  whereby  he  was  reduced  to  great  wants. 

The  Rev.  William  Boyd,  pastor  of  Lamington  Presb.  Church,  1784-1807, 
was  "the  son  of  Jo  in  Boyd,  a  Scotch-Irishman,  was  born  in  Franklin  county, 
Penn.,  where  his  father  settled  on  removing  to  America."  '  Manual  of  I^am- 
ington  Church,  p.  12.  Mr.  John  Boyd  VauDoren,  of  Princeton,  considers 
Rev.  Wm.  Boyd  "the  son  or  direct  descendant  of  the  Rev.  John  Boyd  of 
Monmouth." 

An  Adam  Boyd  appears  in  Synod  in  1725.  A  John  Boyd,  at  Upper  Octo- 
rara,  Penn.,  in  1736.  A  William  Boyd  came  from  Ireland  to  America  on  an 
inquiry  about  Scotch-Irish  emigration  in  1718. 

22      See  Note  18. 

23.  See  Hodge's  History,  i.  78. 

24.  In  an  address  on  Rev.  John  Boyd  before  the  Presbyterian  Historical 
Society,  delivered  by  Rev.  D.  V.  McLean,  D.  D.,  it  is  said  that  Mr.  Boyd 
"devoted  some  portion  of  his  time  to  Middletown,  preaching  there  at  least 
as  early  as  1706."  Dr.  McLean  holds  that  before  the  vScotch  Immigration  of 
1682-5,  Presbyterians  from  Connecticut  and  Long  Island,  settling  in  Mon- 
mouth county,  "were  active  in  establishing  Presbyterian  Congregations 
in  Shrewsbury  and  Middletown  where  at  least  occasional  services  were  held 
before  they  were  in  any  other  part  of  the  county." 

"The  PresV)yterian  Church  of  Middletown  had  its  commencement  before 
1706  and  a  church  edifice  was  soon  after  erected  on  the  old  Presbyterian 
burying-ground  lot."     Ellis'  Hist.  Mon.  Co  ,  p.  532. 

In  Scot's  "Model,"  1684,  speaking  of.  the  Independent  churchej  of  Mid- 
dletown and  vShrewsbury  he  says  they  "are  most  like  Presbyterian." 

25.  See  C.  W.  Baird's  History  of  the  Church  in  Bedford,  N.  Y. 

26.  See  Mather's  Magnalia,  I.  p.  88. 

•  27.     See  Letter  of  Mr.  Bartow's  in  Briggs  Amer.  Presbyterianism,  p.  149. 

Mr.  Bartow  married  Helen,  daughter  of  John  Reid  of  Monmouth  county. 

Their  granddaughter,  Theodosia,  married  Aaron  Burr.  Ellis'  Hist.  Mon. 
Co.,  p.  575. 

28.  Lecture  before  Presb.  Hist.  Soc.  by  D.  V.  McLean,  D.  D.,  on 
"Joseph  Morgan."     Other  authorities  hold  the  same. 

29.  See  Hist,  of  Presb.  Church  of  Trenton,  p   46. 

In  a  letter  received  from  the  Registrar  of  Yale  College,  F.  B.  Dexter, 
in   1889,  it   is  stated  of  Joseph  Morgan  that  "He  was   not  a  student   here 


APPENDIX.  Vll 

at   any    time,    but   received    the    honorary  degree  of  Master  of  Arts    about 
the  year  17 19;  the  exact  date  is  not  known. 

30.  See  "Brick  Church  Memorial,"  by  Rev.  T.  W.  Wells,  p.  22. 

31.  See  "Brick  Church  Memorial,"  by  Rev.  T.  W.  Wells,  p.  23. 

32.  Close  connections  existed  in  those  early  days  between  the  Scotch  and 
Dutch  settlers.  Two  early  graves  in  the  "Old  Scots"  ground  indicate  by 
the  "van,"  the  marriages  of  Scotch  daughters  to  the  sons  of  Dutch  immi- 
grants. In  1714  Jonathan  Forman  united  with  the  Dutch  Church,  a  sufiflci- 
ent  explanation  of  the  fact  being  seen  in  his  wife's  maiden  name  of  Wikof. 
This  Forman  was  the  fourth  generation  from  Robert  Forman,  b.  ab.  1610,  in 
England,  coming  to  Long  Island  in  1645,  a  connection,  probably  of  the  John 
Foreman,  of  the  "Henry  and  Francis."  who  with  John  FVazer  and  five 
others,  were  seized  in  London,  while  hearing  Rev.  Alex  Shields  preach, 
cast  into  Newgate  Prison,  marched  through  London,  manacled,  two  by  two, 
sent  to  Scotland  [indicating  probably  Scotch  connection]  examined  by  the 
Council,  and  sent  to  Dunnottar  Castle.  Webster's  History  Presbyterian 
Church,  p.  70. 

^T,.     In  the  Library  of  the  Conn.  Hi.st.  Society. 

34.  This,  and  his  "Remedj'  for  Mortal  Errors,"  a  sermon  preached  in 
1723  on  the  death  of  his  son  Joseph,  in  which  he  "entertained"  his  audience 
with  an  account  of  "The  dutj-  and  marks  of  Zion's  children,"  and  his  last 
publication,  a  sermon  on  "Love  to  our  neighbour  commended,"  printed  in 
Boston  in  1749,  ma}'  be  found,  (according  to  Dr.  D.  V.  McLean)  in  the  An- 
tiquarian Society  Library  at  Worcester,  Mass  Also  his  remarkable  letter  to 
Cotton  Mather,  quoted  before.  In  this  letter,  written  in  Latin  (of  the  day), 
he  says  "I  spent  only  three  3'ears  in  the  study  of  languages  and  the  arts,  and 
for  twenty-five  years  I  have  labored  almost  constantly  with  my  hands.  A 
Latin,  Greek,  or  Hebrew  book  I  have  sometimes  not  had  in  my  hands  for  a 
whole  year.  I  have  scarcely  an}-  V)ooks:  possess  no  dictionary  but  an  imper- 
fect Rider.  I  have  no  commentaries,  nor  theological  systems  nor  histories. " 
It  is  pleasant  to  learn  that  Mr.  Mather  furnished  him  soon  with  a  library  of 
useful  books.     D.  V.  McLean's  Lecture  on  Joseph  Morgan. 

35.  For  this  letter,  full  of  quaintne.ss,  pedantry,  garrulity,  and  noble  sin" 
cerity,  see  Briggs'  Amer.  Presbyterianism,  App.  p.  Ixi. 

36.  See  "Brick  Church  Memorial,"  p.  23. 

37.  See  Ellis'  Hist,  of  Men.  Co.,  p.  680. 

38.  See  "Brick  Church  Memorial,"  p.  24. 

39.  See  "Historical  Discourse  on  Presb.  Church  of  Allentown,"  by  Geo. 
Swain,  D.  D.,  pp.  11,  12. 

40.  See  Ellis'  Hist.  Mon.  Co.  p.  532  . 

41.  See  Ellis'  Hist.  Mon    Co.  p.  5S4. 

42.  In  his  "Reply  to  an  Anonymous  Railer  against  the  Doctrine  of 
Election,"  repelling  the  slur  on  Presbyterian  ministers  for  receiving  a  main- 
tenance while  preaching  the  Gospel. 

43.  See  "Brick  Church  Memorial."  p.  23. 

44.  See  Webster's  History,  p.  364. 

45.  See  C.  W    Baird's  Hist    Bedford  Church,  pp.  45,  seq. 

46.  See  Hodge's  Hist.  Presb    Church,  i.  88,  note. 

47.  In  Prince's  Christian  History,  No.  91. 

48.  In  1 72 1,  Increase  Mather  wrote  "There  is  a  grievous  decay  of  piety 
in  the  land,  and  a  leaving  of  her  first  love  ;  a  fruitful  Christian  grown  too 
rare  a  spectacle. ' ' 

In  England,  in  1736,  Bishop  Butler,  wrote  Christianity  itself  seemed  to  be 
regarded  as  a  fable  "among  all  persons  of  discernment. " 


Vlll  THE        OLD    SCOTS        CHURCH. 

49.  For  this  incident,  and  many  other  facts  concerning  John  Tennent, 
including  the  quoted  paragraph  at  the  close  of  the  chapter,  a  debt  of  acknow- 
ledgment is  owed  to  the  Mss.  Lectures  of  Dr.  D.  V.  McLean. 

The  Lecture  on  William  Tennent,  Jr. ,  which  passes  beyond  the  .scope  of 
this  work,  is  especially  full  and  interesting. 

50.  These  extracts  from  the  earliest  history  recorded  of  the  Church,  are 
published  in  Ellis'  Hist,  of  Mon.  Co.  pp.  680,  681. 

51.  Hodge's  Hist.  Presb.  Church,  ii.,  20. 

52.  This  "Perm't"  was  in  existence  some  years  ago,  but  seems  to  have 
di.sappeared,  along  with  other  valuable  historical  matter. 

53.  John  Hutton  had  represented  the  Church  at  the  Synods  of  1727  and 
1728,  in  the  time  of  Morgan's  troubles. 

54.  John  Henderson's  daughter  Jane  was  "the  first  child  ever  the  Rev. 
Mr  John  Tennent  baptised."  On  her  stone  in  the  "Old  Scots"  ground  is 
the  inscription  "Her  Grace,  Obedience,  Good  conduct  and  Grave  sense 
<.aused  Parents  tears  and  neighbors  observance.  " 

55.  Janet  Rhea  lies  buried  in  a  private  plot  of  the  Rhea  family,  on  the 
D.  D.  Denise  farm,  one  mile  west  of  F'reehold.  The  names  and  dates  on 
the  stones  in  the  plot  are  as  follows: 

Janet  Rhea.     Died  Jan.  15,  1761,  aet.  ab.  93. 

Robert  Rhe.      Died  Jan.  18,  1720. 

David  Rhea.     Died  May  15,  1761,  aet.  64,  and  2  months. 

Jonathen  Rhea,  Died  May  23,  1767,  aet.  31  [or  91,]  9  months,  and    i    day 

[This  stone  is  broken  into  six  fragments,  making  the  age  uncertain.] 

Anna,  daughter  of  Jonethan  and  Lydia  Rhea,  aet.  5  months. 

Margreat,  daughter  of  Robert  and  Mary  Rhe.      Died  Nov.    10,    1747,  aet. 

I  year,  3  mos. ,  17  days. 

David,    son  of  Robert  and  Mary    Rhe.     Died   Aug.  11,  1752,  aet  3   years 

I I  mos. ,  25  days 

Margret,  daughter  of  Robert  &  Mary  Rhe.  Died  Aug.  16,  1752,  aet. 
I  3'ear,  6  mos.,  7  days. 

In  a  family  plot  two  miles  east  of  Freehold,  on  "  Wikoff's  Hill"  are 
the  following  headstones: — 

Ursilla,  wife  of  Aaron  Forman      Died  Ap.  4,  1768,  aet.  63 

Aaron  Forman,  .son  of  Sam'l.  &  Marv,  Died  Jan.  13,  1741-2,  aet  42. 

Samuel  Forman,  Died  Oct.  13,  1740,  aet  77. 

Samuel  Stelle,  son  of  Ambrose  and  Rebekah  vStelle.  Died  Oct.  16,  1721, 
aet.  2  years,  4  mos  ,  18  days. 

Denise,  sou  of  John  and  Elinor  Forman.  Died  Nov.  18,  1761,  aet.  i  year 
8  mos.,  9  days 

Mary,  wife  of  Samuel  Forman,  died  Mar.  t8,  1728,  aet.  61. 

Eleanor  Forman,  daughter  of  John  and  Jane,  died  Oct.  r8,  1730,  aet.  3 
years,  and  7  mos. 

Hannah  Forman,  daughter  of  John  and  Jane,  died  Sep.  30,  1730,  aet. 
15  mos. 

Rebekah  van  Kleif,  daughter  of  Sanmel  and  Mary  Forman,  died  Sep. 
19,  1748,  aet.  52. 

Capt.  John  Forman,  died  Nov.  25,  1740,  aet.  47  years,  2  mos.,  2  days. 

William  Maddock,  died  Sep.  i,  1750,  aet  59  years,  5  mos.,  19  days. 

Hannah,  wife  of  William  Maddock,  died  Jan.  11,  1755,  aet.  65  years,  18 
days. 

There  are  some  other  old  plots  about  Freehold,  but  the  stones  in  them 
have  either  no  inscriptions  or  are  mostly  undecipherable 

The  oldest  stone  in  the  Tennent  yard  is  of  Aaron  Mattison,  son  of  John 
and  Elizabeth,  1744. 


Princeton  Theological  Seminary  Libraries 


1    1012  01217   1890 


